Madrid upgrades with World’s largest street lighting project

To support its ambition of becoming a Smart City, the Spanish capital, Madrid, is embarking on the world’s largest street lighting upgrade project. Philips is providing the city’s government with 225,000 new energy-efficient lights for the renewal of the entire street lighting system.

Source: traffictechnologytoday.com

>”The products, which deliver 44% in energy savings, will finance the cost of the technology upgrade, providing Madrid with the best quality of street lighting for a brighter, safer and ‘smarter’ city at no additional cost to its citizens. The project has been conducted in collaboration with ESCO energy service companies hired by the Madrid city council through a public bidding process. […]”<

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BEMS for Smaller Buildings $6 Billion Growth from 2014 to 2022

The market for building energy management systems (BEMS) for small and medium-sized commercial buildings is expanding as building owners and managers demand more energy savings and easier ways to manage energy use in their facilities, notes Navigant Research.

Source: www.achrnews.com

>” […]“Lower expenditures on energy management in the small and medium-sized building market, along with the lower penetration of advanced controls and building management systems, has limited the penetration of BEMS in this sector,” said Noah Goldstein, research director with Navigant Research. “Given the increasing importance of energy savings, however, BEMS are poised to be a tool that enables savings in both cost and carbon emissions in small and medium buildings.”

The most rapid growth in the BEMS market for smaller buildings, according to the report, is expected to occur in Europe and Asia Pacific, where new construction and regulation are promoting the installation of BEMS equipment and in turn creating demand for associated services and software. In the North American market, BEMS sales are expected to be concentrated in software, driven by utility and regulatory initiatives that promote energy efficiency and building energy reporting. […]”<

 

See on Scoop.itGreen Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

New York to Retrofit 250,000 Streetlights With Energy-Saving LED Bulbs

See on Scoop.itGreen Energy Technologies & Development

The phaseout is part of a long-term plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2017 and, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, would save taxpayers money.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The news conference was on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where lights have already been replaced, expecting to save more than $70,000 and nearly 248,000 kilowatt-hours a year in energy. Unlike standard lights, which last six years, LED bulbs can burn for 20 years before they need to be replaced, the administration said, and the project is expected to save $14 million a year in energy and maintenance costs. […]

“People tend to like them,” she said. “It’s clear. It’s bright. It really does a good job in providing fresher light.” The project is estimated to cost $76.5 million.

The project is the first to receive financing through the Accelerated Conservation and Efficiency initiative or “ACE,” the administration said, a $100 million competitive program that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services created to expedite such sustainability projects.<

See on www.nytimes.com

Virtual Energy Audits: The Next Big Thing in Buildings?

See on Scoop.itGreen Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

Virtual energy audits use software to collect meter data, weather information, etc. and algorithms to develop energy efficiency recommendations.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The goal of any energy audit is to identify savings by analyzing data, determining how and where a building is using energy, and then providing operational and capital energy efficiency measures that improve overall performance.

A traditional ASHRAE Level II Audit includes a manual inspection of data related to a facility’s Building Envelope, Lighting, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), Domestic Hot Water (DHW), Plug Loads, and Compressed Air and Process Uses (for manufacturing, service, or processing facilities). Analysis is conducted to quantify baseloads and account for seasonal variation. A Level II Audit will also include an evaluation of lighting, air quality, temperature, ventilation, humidity, and other conditions that may affect energy performance and occupant comfort. The process also includes detailed discussions with the building owners, managers, and tenants – there is a lot you can learn just by talking to people about what they think is working and not, what the financial objectives of the organization are, and how that should feed into the recommendations.  […]

Ok, I get it: So what’s a virtual energy audit?

Essentially a virtual energy audit is much like a traditional audit: the goal is to synthesize a whole bunch of data and come up with a list of recommendations that are going to deliver you the biggest bang for your buck. Unlike a detailed ASHRAE Level II audit, it’s better to think of virtual audits as delivering against the 80/20 rule. For a lot less physical effort, it’s going to get you about 80% of the detailed insights that a traditional ASHRAE Level II energy audit would deliver. And for many organizations, that’s OK – because their biggest, most obvious energy hogs are the ones driving the biggest bills at the end of the month.<

See on energysmart.enernoc.com

Congress and Light Bulb Regulation | The Energy Collective

See on Scoop.itGreen & Sustainable News

Light bulbs, as you may recall, have become a perennial excuse for certain federal legislators to whip up the conservative base, by railing again new federal energy efficiency standards.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Relamping projects have been an easy way to score energy efficiency gains in buildings since the 1990’s.  Inefficient incandescent light bulbs have given way to fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent and now LED technology.

Within these stages of development each form of lighting have seen their own evolution.  The driving forces for these increases in lighting efficiency are economic starting back with the 1970’s energy crunch.

Taken from a blog on CFL development & history:

“In 1973-74 the oil crisis took place and lamp companies needed to reduce wattage in their linear (tube) lamps to compensate. Many people had four bulb fixtures and were removing two bulbs, to save energy, therefore dropping sales by half. This forced lamp companies to create energy efficient solution.

Ed worked on creating lamp with reduced wattage by adding krypton and a conductive tin coating inside. This helped lower the wattage from 40 to 35 watts but he wanted to get down to 30 watts. He continued to work and finally the wattage went from 35 to 34 and eventually 32 watts!”
http://bit.ly/149GANs

See on theenergycollective.com