Department of Energy funds $104M for federal energy conservation, clean energy projects

Thirty-one federal facilities will benefit from $104 million recently announced by the U.S.  Department of Energy (DOE) as a way to support net-zero projects and save taxpayers money. 

The funding represents the first of three disbursements from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law promoted by the Biden administration. It will focus on items like the installation of rooftop solar panels and a heat-recovery heat pump system at the Pentagon, new LED lights and occupancy sensors for the Department of Transportation’s headquarters, replacing diesel-powered boilers with electric boilers and swapping out aging HVAC systems, among other things. 

By the end, the department added that these projects should as much as double the amount of carbon-free electricity capacity at federal facilities brought online in 2022. In all, this should lead to 27 megawatts (MW) of new clean-energy capacity. They will also be backed by another $361 million in private investment. 

In all, the government noted this should save taxpayers around $29 million in the first year alone. 

“The Federal Government is the nation’s largest consumer of energy, and conserving as much power as possible in our buildings and vehicle fleets benefits taxpayers and bolsters our national security,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. 

While the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was the catalyst, the funding ultimately came from the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) program, a 1992 program to help agencies cut energy consumption through electrification, geothermal heat pumps, on-site solar generation, battery energy storage and more. It also represents the latest push from the Biden administration to cut greenhouse gas emissions from federal operations by 65 percent as of 2030, make all vehicle acquisitions zero-emission by 2035 and create a net-zero building portfolio by 2045. 

In all, 16 agencies applied for the funding, all seeking to use the money to support planning, development and implementation of their various ideas. Phase 2 of this AFFECT funding will open later this month.