Energy efficiency is big business in nearly every state, even for those without active energy efficiency resource standard legislation.
There are more than 2,100 energy efficiency bills pending in 50 states. But with a proliferation of legislation comes the need to provide accurate evaluation, measurement and verification.
Of course, one of the problems with energy efficiency is that every project is seemingly unique and there is not a federal standard for evaluation.
While we wait on a standard tool to evaluate projects (something the Environmental Defense Fund is working on), the U.S. Energy Information Administration has launched a nationwide inventory of energy-efficiency evaluation reports for electricity and natural gas programs.
EIA compiled 39 data sources from 108 annual reports and another 115 process evaluations. The database allows for comparison by geography, scope and other characteristics. It’s hardly a user-friendly interface, but the spreadsheet is a one-stop-shopping starting point.
The inventory comes just months after Colorado State University's Center for the New Energy Economy launched its Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker. Energy efficiency is a scattered business, and the EIA hopes that the inventory will make it easier for stakeholders to tack and compare the varied programs that exist across the U.S.
The government will also use this searchable spreadsheet to support the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), which is used to produce reports for Congress, the White House and other government agencies.