Anna Leonard's Blog Posts Tagged 'efficiency' (8)

DURHAM, N.C., January 23, 2012 — Taking steps to improve energy efficiency and reduce its overall carbon footprint, the City of Asheville has initiated North Carolina’s first large-scale deployment of LED street lights. There are 3,643 LEDway® street lights from Durham-based manufacturer Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) being installed, with projected savings of $260,000 annually.



In the initial phase of the project, completed in June 2011, 730 street lights in Asheville’s River District…

Progress Energy customers will soon have a little more motivation to be more efficient. Progress Energy will begin sending notices to customers comparing their energy use with neighbor's of similar size homes. For the competitive type, this makes saving energy a type of competition, competing for the top score and most efficient house! These notices will begin going out in June. A little friendly competition may be just what is needed to encourage some households to save…

SALISBURY — With the looming state and local budget cuts, school systems across North Carolina are looking for cost-savings wherever possible. Some have already found success and want to energize other school systems to take similar actions.

EduCon, a Winston-Salem based energy conservation consulting company, works with school systems to reduce energy consumption and costs, which in most cases is the second highest line-item in a school system’s budget.

“Energy costs continue…

Solar energy is proving so successful in North Carolina that industry advocates want to double the amount of sun-powered electricity that is required by state law.

A bill introduced Monday in the General assembly would raise North Carolina's solar energy requirement to 0.4 percent of all retail electricity sold by electric utilities by 2018. The current requirement, set by the state's sweeping 2007 green energy law, is 0.2 percent.

But despite solar energy's…

Appalachian State University has installed their very first green roof on campus. It is located at Katherine Harper Hall (formaly Kerr Scott Hall). This building is host to technology programs including Building Science and Appropriate Technology. These majors will no doubt benefit from this installation as a hands-on learning opportunity. A green roof helps to reduce energy costs while reducing green-house emissions and enhancing storm-water managment. Read more about this…

Building on a pledge in his State of the Union address to invest in infrastructure and clean energy, President Obama will unveil proposals today to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings with tax incentives and competitive grants to states and municipalities.

Obama plans to announce the Better Buildings Initiative during today's trip to State College, Pa., home to Penn…

RALEIGH –North Carolina’s Utility Savings Initiative saved the state’s taxpayers more than $55.3 million in utility costs in the last fiscal year and avoided emitting more than 164,886 metric tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, according to a report issued recently by the North Carolina Energy Office.  Since the Utility Savings Initiative was launched in 2003, the state has saved more than $325 million while investing $11 million into utility savings improvements in North Carolina…

The results of today's (12/14/10) meeting are in!

The North Carolina Building Code Council decided Tuesday to order the increase in home energy efficiency and to consider changes to building standards that could cut building costs by 15 percent. Commercial buildings would be required to meet a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency...

Read more and watch news story…