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Greetings from Tokyo! I bring good tidings of great progress in our efforts to advance energy efficiency that occurred while I was abroad this past week, addressing and attending the Pacific Energy Summit. While I have learned a tremendous amount and made several important new relationships for the Alliance, I regret missing the groundbreaking events and achievements happening at home.
Just last week, the Alliance and the building energy codes community won a substantial first round victory for model codes which, when taken together with last year’s 13 percent boost, will mark the most significant advancement in national energy efficiency building codes in decades. After two-and-a-half days of intense deliberations in Baltimore, the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) Development Committee of the International Code Council (ICC) last Friday completed action on recommendations which – if adopted at ICC’s Final Action Hearings next year – would produce a model energy code that’s roughly 30 percent more efficient than the 2006 IECC. In the months leading up to the hearings, the Alliance and its affiliate, the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC), will continue to lead this effort to adopt this landmark boost in the energy efficiency of America’s homes – and we invite you to get involved as well! Read the EECC’s press release on the Committee’s recommendations, log onto www.thirtypercentsolution.org for more information, and contact the EECC’s Executive Director, Bill Fay at bfay@ase.org if you have questions or want to help.
More recently, on November 3, lighting equipment manufacturers, energy efficiency organizations and a utility forged a new, historic agreement setting energy- and money-saving standards for outdoor lighting. Represented by our Honorary Chair Senator Mark Pryor, the Alliance joined the National Electrical Manufacturer’s Association (which includes Alliance Associates Acuity Brands Lighting, Cree, OSRAM SYLVANIA and Philips); the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE); the Natural Resources Defense Council; the Appliance Standards Awareness Project and Pacific Gas & Electric Company at Tuesday’s press conference in Washington, DC, to announce the landmark agreement. The new standards will cover street, roadway, highway and area lighting such as the lights used to illuminate outdoor parking lots. The lighting products covered by this agreement represent about 1.5 percent of all the electricity used in our nation, at an annual cost of some $5.4 billion. Furthermore, these new standards are comprehensive, covering much more than just the bulbs used to light up the outdoors – they cover what we call the entire “luminaire”, i.e., the bulb, the light source, the reflector, the glass, the housing, the ballast that regulates the flow of electricity from the source to the light – in other words, the whole package. Finally, the standards were carefully crafted and custom-tailored to set an appropriate standard for each type of lighting task.
The benefits to our cause and to our country from these new standards will be enormous. When put in place legally, the agreed upon new standards would reduce U.S. lighting energy use by about 24 to 42 billion kWh annually, equivalent to the annual output of 3 to 6 new 1000 MW power plants (the typical size of a new nuclear unit). ACEEE estimates that the initial standards will save about 12 billion kWh/year. And, the revised standards could increase savings by 12 to 30 billion kWh/year for total savings of as much as 42 billion kWh/year (or roughly enough power to meet the total needs of more than 3.6 million typical U.S. households).
And, as if we hadn’t enough to celebrate this week, the Alliance received an unsolicited and anonymous individual donation of $50,000.00. Considering these challenging economic times, this gift – from an individual, no less! – is particularly inspiring, and we take it as a testament to the importance of our mission and the impact of our work. On behalf of the Alliance, I send my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the person who has given so generously; the money will be put to very good use!
Best,
Kateri Callahan
President, Alliance to Save Energy
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