DoE
Defining a Zero Emissions Building from the Top Down
October 5th, 2023DoE Claims US Can Save $10 Billion in Annual Grid Costs Using VPPs
September 29th, 2023
Nostromo Behind-The-Meter Energy Storage Business Examined
In this Research Note, we examine Nostromo, the Israeli public company developing Behind-the-Meter thermal energy storage solutions for commercial buildings. Founded in 2017, Nostromo Energy is a developer of sustainable energy storage and energy demand management solutions for commercial buildings that use chiller-based air conditioning. The system is based on proprietary IceBrick encapsulated ice cells […]
How Does Biden’s New Clean Energy Bill Impact Smart Buildings?
Last week, President Biden signed the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, which will drive over $430 billion toward clean energy and sustainability solutions, with a specific focus on buildings. While the total amount is a step down from the $550 billion suggested in the 2021 Build Back Better proposal, the emphasis on buildings in addition […]
Bringing Small Buildings into the Smart Buildings Market
The vast majority of buildings are small and not very smart, and it is their small size that limits their “intelligence” by restricting their access to smart building technology. A staggering 94% of US office space is housed in properties under 50,000 square feet, according to the latest data from Energy Star, and that proportion is […]
DOE Connected Buildings Pilot: A Small Step in the Right Direction
Earlier this month the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $61 million pilot project that will create 10 highly connected communities across the country. The initiative will transform thousands of homes and workplaces into energy-efficient buildings that can interact with the electrical grid to optimize their energy consumption. While not extraordinary in terms of investment or […]
Why Does the US Lag Behind Europe for Human-Centric Lighting?
Human-Centric Lighting (HCL) is a rapidly emerging technology in the lighting space. Our latest report estimates the global HCL market to be worth $849 million in 2019, growing to $3.5 billion in 2024. North America and Europe are generally comparable when investigating the development of general lighting and wider building system related analyses. However, the […]
Undetected Hacks of IoT Devices May be Straining our Power System & Strangling our Economy
“We’ve all seen the headlines: A major cyber attack on the US electric grid could cause over $1 trillion in economic impact,” says Yotam Gutman, VP Marketing at SecuriThings. “Nevertheless. to date, there have been no recorded cyber attacks on power facilities that have caused a major physical catastrophe or long blackout,” he points out. […]
Experts Make the Cyber Security Case for Distributed Renewable Energy
In case there weren’t enough reasons for us to stop using fossil fuels to generate electricity, experts now claim that in addition to being environmentally unfriendly these energy sources also make us more vulnerable to catastrophic cyber attack in comparison to renewable alternatives. Their theory is simple, fossil fuels are only effective through a centralized […]
Solar Power Beats DOE Targets By 3 Years Underlining Its Value to Buildings
In 2011 the US Department of Energy (DOE) set a target as part of their SunShot Initiative that the cost of solar power should reach a very competitive $1 per watt, or 6 cents per kilowatt hour, by 2020. Last week they announced they had reached this target a full three years ahead of schedule […]