Ortmann said Skyhaven lucked out last summer and, unlike some local airports, was not in the middle of any major construction project during the temporary FAA shutdown. Still, he said he was pleased to see a long-term funding plan approved for the administration.
"It gives us a blueprint or plan of action for the future," he said.
Ortmann said the SAAC created a master plan for the airport a number of years ago, updated in 2010, and that while some of the projects have already been completed or may not be eligible for federal funding, some of those proposed for the next couple years will be made easier thanks to the new legislation.
"The ability to plan for improvements is one of the bigger benefits," he said.
One of these projects is the rehabilitation of one of the runways, which would include resurfacing and repaving of the area.
The design for this project will be done this year, according to the master plan, 95 percent of which — or about $361,000 — could be paid for by the FAA. The actual construction of this project, which is estimated to cost about $1.8 million, $1.7 million of which could be funded by the FAA, is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Another project slated for the next couple years, Ortmann said, that would be eligible for FAA funding under the new bill, is the installation of new, brighter lights on one of the airport's runways.
This project, slated for 2014 in the master plan, would cost about $80,000, $76,000 of which could be paid for by the FAA.
According to Ortmann, the project would help to make the airport more usable, by working toward decreasing the visibility minimums required for aircraft landing at the airport.
Ortmann said there are certain procedures and requirements a pilot must meet before landing at an airport to ensure the safety of passengers and those on the ground. These requirements include the minimum visibility levels a pilot must have before landing.
For example, pilots flying into Skyhaven, he said, have to be able to see the ground from about 600 to 700 feet and have one mile of visibility ahead of them in order to land. Larger airports, with longer and wider runways and more advanced radar technology — Skyhaven Airport has no control tower and qualifies as uncontrolled air space — have less restrictive minimums, he said.
The new lighting system, however, would help decrease that distance to three-quarters of a mile, making it easier for pilots to land at night and on days with poor weather.
According to the master plan, this decrease would provide operational benefits to aircraft operators and potentially increase the number of aircraft that land at Skyhaven.
2012年2月8日星期三
Albeo Sees 300 Percent Increase in LED Retrofits
The LED lighting revolution isn't quite happening yet in the home, but that doesn't mean it isn't settling into certain commercial and industrial sectors.
For one company, Albeo Technologies, the focus on the industrial sector has reaped a 50-percent increase in revenue in 2011 and an increase in LED retrofits of 300 percent. In the LED space, Albeo is not alone. Redwood Systems, for example, saw year-over-year growth in sales of more than 300 percent, and Lighting Science Group produced 4.5 million LEDs in 2011, a 450-percent increase compared to 2010.
Albeo and others only expect that trend to continue in 2012, as cold storage facilities, data centers and other large retail and industrial sectors embrace LEDs. Jeff Bisberg, CEO of Albeo, said that cold storage and data centers are seeing a 1.5- to 2-year payback for LED lights, which is making them extremely attractive compared to high-bay, high-intensity discharge lamps. The Boulder-based company has lights in more than 7 million square feet of space.
Besides its industrial focus, the Albeo team says the secret to the firm's current success is in the modular solution that can fit any building design. "Light fixtures are the last thing to go into the building," said Bisberg. "It has to conform to whatever is happening below."
To offer customers the flexibility they're looking for, Albeo says its flexible system can fit whatever the needs of the space are. And while Albeo offers controls as well, it is controls-agnostic, rather than focusing on the controls as the selling point. "The control technology is pretty mature," argued Bisberg, "while the LED technology is still changing."
In 2012, Albeo is "cautiously optimistic." The success is expected to continue to come from retrofits, as well as the industrial sector, including food processing, large distribution warehouses and aircraft hangars. Once any sector starts to see about a 1.5-year payback, that's when the mass adoption is happening, as it is with cold storage. A 2010 Enterprise LED Lighting report from Groom Energy and GTM Research also found that the market for LEDs in parking garages should start to mature going into 2012.
Outside of commercial and industrial applications, the interest is still nascent. There will be some groundwork laid in 2012, but GTM Research and Groom Energy see the period of 2013 to 2015 as the breakout years for those markets.
"The market is wide," said Bisberg, "and there's going to be a lot of winners. We're pretty excited about the future."
For one company, Albeo Technologies, the focus on the industrial sector has reaped a 50-percent increase in revenue in 2011 and an increase in LED retrofits of 300 percent. In the LED space, Albeo is not alone. Redwood Systems, for example, saw year-over-year growth in sales of more than 300 percent, and Lighting Science Group produced 4.5 million LEDs in 2011, a 450-percent increase compared to 2010.
Albeo and others only expect that trend to continue in 2012, as cold storage facilities, data centers and other large retail and industrial sectors embrace LEDs. Jeff Bisberg, CEO of Albeo, said that cold storage and data centers are seeing a 1.5- to 2-year payback for LED lights, which is making them extremely attractive compared to high-bay, high-intensity discharge lamps. The Boulder-based company has lights in more than 7 million square feet of space.
Besides its industrial focus, the Albeo team says the secret to the firm's current success is in the modular solution that can fit any building design. "Light fixtures are the last thing to go into the building," said Bisberg. "It has to conform to whatever is happening below."
To offer customers the flexibility they're looking for, Albeo says its flexible system can fit whatever the needs of the space are. And while Albeo offers controls as well, it is controls-agnostic, rather than focusing on the controls as the selling point. "The control technology is pretty mature," argued Bisberg, "while the LED technology is still changing."
In 2012, Albeo is "cautiously optimistic." The success is expected to continue to come from retrofits, as well as the industrial sector, including food processing, large distribution warehouses and aircraft hangars. Once any sector starts to see about a 1.5-year payback, that's when the mass adoption is happening, as it is with cold storage. A 2010 Enterprise LED Lighting report from Groom Energy and GTM Research also found that the market for LEDs in parking garages should start to mature going into 2012.
Outside of commercial and industrial applications, the interest is still nascent. There will be some groundwork laid in 2012, but GTM Research and Groom Energy see the period of 2013 to 2015 as the breakout years for those markets.
"The market is wide," said Bisberg, "and there's going to be a lot of winners. We're pretty excited about the future."
2012年2月5日星期日
Materials for first optical fibers with high-speed electronic function are developed
For the first time, a group of chemists, physicists, and engineers has developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices.
The research was initiated by Rongrui He, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University. The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics.
Badding explained that one of the greatest current technological challenges is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. Existing technology has resulted in sometimes-clumsy ways of merging optical fibers with electronic chips -- silicon-based integrated circuits that serve as the building blocks for most semiconductor electronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), computers, and cell phones.
"The optical fiber is usually a passive medium that simply transports light, while the chip is the piece that performs the electrical part of the equation," Badding said. "For example, light is transmitted from London to New York via fiber-optic cables when two people set up a video call on their computers. But the computer screens and associated electronic devices have to take that light and convert it to an image, which is an electrical process. Light and electricity are working in concert in a process called an OEO conversion, or an optical-electrical-optical conversion."
The integration of optical fibers and chips is difficult for many reasons. First, fibers are round and cylindrical, while chips are flat, so simply shaping the connection between the two is a challenge. Another challenge is the alignment of pieces that are so small. "An optical fiber is 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. On top of that, there are light-guiding pathways that are built onto chips that are even smaller than the fibers by as much as 100 times," Badding said. "So imagine just trying to line those two devices up. That feat is a big challenge for today's technology."
To address these challenges, the team members took a different approach. Rather than merge a flat chip with a round optical fiber, they found a way to build a new kind of optical fiber with its own integrated electronic component, thereby bypassing the need to integrate fiber-optics onto a chip.
To do this, they used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit semiconducting materials directly, layer by layer, into tiny holes in optical fibers. "The big breakthrough here is that we don't need the whole chip as part of the finished product. We have managed to build the junction -- the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place -- right into the fiber," said Pier J. A. Sazio of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and one of the team's leaders.
Sazio added that one of the key goals of research in this field is to create a fast, all-fiber network. "If the signal never leaves the fiber, then it is a faster, cheaper, and more efficient technology," said Sazio. "Moving technology off the chip and directly onto the fiber, which is the more-natural place for light, opens up the potential for embedded semiconductors to carry optoelectronic applications to the next level. At present, you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fiber. If we can actually generate signals inside a fiber, a whole range of optoelectronic applications becomes possible."
The research was initiated by Rongrui He, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University. The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics.
Badding explained that one of the greatest current technological challenges is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. Existing technology has resulted in sometimes-clumsy ways of merging optical fibers with electronic chips -- silicon-based integrated circuits that serve as the building blocks for most semiconductor electronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), computers, and cell phones.
"The optical fiber is usually a passive medium that simply transports light, while the chip is the piece that performs the electrical part of the equation," Badding said. "For example, light is transmitted from London to New York via fiber-optic cables when two people set up a video call on their computers. But the computer screens and associated electronic devices have to take that light and convert it to an image, which is an electrical process. Light and electricity are working in concert in a process called an OEO conversion, or an optical-electrical-optical conversion."
The integration of optical fibers and chips is difficult for many reasons. First, fibers are round and cylindrical, while chips are flat, so simply shaping the connection between the two is a challenge. Another challenge is the alignment of pieces that are so small. "An optical fiber is 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. On top of that, there are light-guiding pathways that are built onto chips that are even smaller than the fibers by as much as 100 times," Badding said. "So imagine just trying to line those two devices up. That feat is a big challenge for today's technology."
To address these challenges, the team members took a different approach. Rather than merge a flat chip with a round optical fiber, they found a way to build a new kind of optical fiber with its own integrated electronic component, thereby bypassing the need to integrate fiber-optics onto a chip.
To do this, they used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit semiconducting materials directly, layer by layer, into tiny holes in optical fibers. "The big breakthrough here is that we don't need the whole chip as part of the finished product. We have managed to build the junction -- the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place -- right into the fiber," said Pier J. A. Sazio of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and one of the team's leaders.
Sazio added that one of the key goals of research in this field is to create a fast, all-fiber network. "If the signal never leaves the fiber, then it is a faster, cheaper, and more efficient technology," said Sazio. "Moving technology off the chip and directly onto the fiber, which is the more-natural place for light, opens up the potential for embedded semiconductors to carry optoelectronic applications to the next level. At present, you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fiber. If we can actually generate signals inside a fiber, a whole range of optoelectronic applications becomes possible."
2012年2月2日星期四
ST Micro to improve smartphone cameras with 40W LED flash
STMicroelectronics hopes to make blurry low-light images from smartphone cameras a thing of the past with a new chip designed to boost light output from LED-based flashes.
The ideal camera flash delivers a lot of light in a short time, freezing action and illuminating more distant objects. Professional cameras use a xenon strobe light to produce a brief burst - or flash - of light, but the lighting on smartphone cameras is typically provided by an LED.
The light output of a battery-powered LED is continuous, and much lower in intensity than a flash, leading to longer exposure times and darker, blurrier pictures.
But ST hopes to change that with its new STCF04 multifunction chip, which it says can control flash power up to 40W, compared to perhaps 2W for typical LED flashes today.
The key is the chip's ability to control the charging and discharging of a supercapacitor, which it uses to gradually store energy from the phone's battery and then deliver it to the LED in a short burst. That's similar to the way that xenon strobes work, but the LED-supercap combination does the job with just a few volts, making it much safer - and the components more compact -than the hundreds or thousands of volts needed to drive a xenon strobe.
ST's chip, just 3 millimeters square, will add US$2 or less to the cost of a cell phone, it said.
It contains a charger to store energy in a supercap, and a driver for an external transistor used to deliver 40 watts or more of peak power from the supercapacitor to a bank of LEDs. It also contains a temperature sensor to detect when the LEDs are in danger of overheating - useful if they are being used as a torch rather than a flash; a light sensor for setting the exposure and flash intensity, and a driver for an auxiliary LED used either as a privacy indicator (you're on camera) or perhaps to help autofocus systems in low light.
The chip's built-in timer can be used to set the flash duration in steps of around one-100,000th of a second, although it takes around one-3,000th of a second for the LED to reach full power, according to ST. The controller can also discharge the supercap in stages to produce several flash pulses in a row, useful for red-eye reduction.
The ideal camera flash delivers a lot of light in a short time, freezing action and illuminating more distant objects. Professional cameras use a xenon strobe light to produce a brief burst - or flash - of light, but the lighting on smartphone cameras is typically provided by an LED.
The light output of a battery-powered LED is continuous, and much lower in intensity than a flash, leading to longer exposure times and darker, blurrier pictures.
But ST hopes to change that with its new STCF04 multifunction chip, which it says can control flash power up to 40W, compared to perhaps 2W for typical LED flashes today.
The key is the chip's ability to control the charging and discharging of a supercapacitor, which it uses to gradually store energy from the phone's battery and then deliver it to the LED in a short burst. That's similar to the way that xenon strobes work, but the LED-supercap combination does the job with just a few volts, making it much safer - and the components more compact -than the hundreds or thousands of volts needed to drive a xenon strobe.
ST's chip, just 3 millimeters square, will add US$2 or less to the cost of a cell phone, it said.
It contains a charger to store energy in a supercap, and a driver for an external transistor used to deliver 40 watts or more of peak power from the supercapacitor to a bank of LEDs. It also contains a temperature sensor to detect when the LEDs are in danger of overheating - useful if they are being used as a torch rather than a flash; a light sensor for setting the exposure and flash intensity, and a driver for an auxiliary LED used either as a privacy indicator (you're on camera) or perhaps to help autofocus systems in low light.
The chip's built-in timer can be used to set the flash duration in steps of around one-100,000th of a second, although it takes around one-3,000th of a second for the LED to reach full power, according to ST. The controller can also discharge the supercap in stages to produce several flash pulses in a row, useful for red-eye reduction.
2012年2月1日星期三
Powin Energy hones in on battery technology
The renewable energy-focused unit also took credit for securing revenues for a sister subsidiary — Quality Bending and Fabrication — of about $259,000.
Company officials said 79 percent of the Powin Energy's total revenues for 2011 were earned in the fourth quarter.
The uptick in sales, which appears to be carrying over into the first quarter, officials say, comes from an emphasis on energy storage as Powin Energy narrows its focus to its battery products.
The company still manufactures fluorescent lighting and wind energy components but has recently honed in on its line of lithium-ion batteries and aggressively marketed the scalable technology.
Powin Energy has not posted a profit yet, and has been a drag on parent company Powin Corp., which manufactures a range of products from gun safes to fitness equipment. But Powin Energy officials say its backing by the 20-year-old global manufacturer and access to Powin Corp. production facilities on three continents is giving the subsidiary an ability to move quickly into energy storage.
Leveraging a partnership with Shandong RealForce Enterprises Co. Ltd, which supplies battery cells, Powin Energy has marketed the technology paired with its own software.
The units range from a 2-kilowatt-hour capacity battery to full utility-scale storage and Powin Energy's software provides an interface to control the battery systems via the web. The systems are targeted for use in the electric vehicle sector, in solar and wind energy storage, in energy storage for telecommunications and in power stations.
"There is an opportunity now in the energy storage business to be a leader," said Mike Morse, vice president of operations for Powin Energy. "The window is now and we are trying to market ourselves as one of the industry leaders in scalable energy storage."
Morse said the company will make a strong showing in the first quarter of 2012 with an announcement of its first major energy storage project pending.
"We are close to signing an agreement to provide energy storage solutions to a major university research department" in Australia, he said.
Powin Energy is also scheduled to receive grant money in February to produce five batteries for buses for a consultant to a major transit provider in the United States, a project that is generating interest from other transit providers.
"We think that the transit industry is really going to be a good market for us," said Morse. "We think once there is success with this first one, the others that are waiting will be a pretty good windfall."
The 2011 revenues celebrated at Powin did not reach the 10 percent projections officials estimated Powin Energy could add to Powin Corp's annual revenue this year, or about $4.8 million. Powin Corp. reported a sharp drop in first-half profits last year as investments in Powin Energy and other new business drove expenses.
Company officials said 79 percent of the Powin Energy's total revenues for 2011 were earned in the fourth quarter.
The uptick in sales, which appears to be carrying over into the first quarter, officials say, comes from an emphasis on energy storage as Powin Energy narrows its focus to its battery products.
The company still manufactures fluorescent lighting and wind energy components but has recently honed in on its line of lithium-ion batteries and aggressively marketed the scalable technology.
Powin Energy has not posted a profit yet, and has been a drag on parent company Powin Corp., which manufactures a range of products from gun safes to fitness equipment. But Powin Energy officials say its backing by the 20-year-old global manufacturer and access to Powin Corp. production facilities on three continents is giving the subsidiary an ability to move quickly into energy storage.
Leveraging a partnership with Shandong RealForce Enterprises Co. Ltd, which supplies battery cells, Powin Energy has marketed the technology paired with its own software.
The units range from a 2-kilowatt-hour capacity battery to full utility-scale storage and Powin Energy's software provides an interface to control the battery systems via the web. The systems are targeted for use in the electric vehicle sector, in solar and wind energy storage, in energy storage for telecommunications and in power stations.
"There is an opportunity now in the energy storage business to be a leader," said Mike Morse, vice president of operations for Powin Energy. "The window is now and we are trying to market ourselves as one of the industry leaders in scalable energy storage."
Morse said the company will make a strong showing in the first quarter of 2012 with an announcement of its first major energy storage project pending.
"We are close to signing an agreement to provide energy storage solutions to a major university research department" in Australia, he said.
Powin Energy is also scheduled to receive grant money in February to produce five batteries for buses for a consultant to a major transit provider in the United States, a project that is generating interest from other transit providers.
"We think that the transit industry is really going to be a good market for us," said Morse. "We think once there is success with this first one, the others that are waiting will be a pretty good windfall."
The 2011 revenues celebrated at Powin did not reach the 10 percent projections officials estimated Powin Energy could add to Powin Corp's annual revenue this year, or about $4.8 million. Powin Corp. reported a sharp drop in first-half profits last year as investments in Powin Energy and other new business drove expenses.
2012年1月31日星期二
New LED stoplights to save Huntington $200K
Huntington motorists will soon see a decrease in the amount of time they spend sitting at traffic lights.
The City of Huntington began installing the light system in Fall 2011. David Hagley, public works directors, said the new light system would be installed at 55 intersections by the end of 2012.
The light system has been commonly referred to as a "smart system." There are no bulbs — the traffic lights and displays are all energy efficient LED lighting.
"All new lights will be LED, all communication will be controlled wirelessly from the Rahall Transportation Institute," Hagley said.
The new system will alleviate problems experienced with the old traffic system. Each new light will communicate wirelessly. In the past, wires have not adapted to years of wear and tear.
"Over time, wires were severed and broke down," Hagley said. "The old lights had sensor wires in the pavement that were easily torn up."
Aside from communicating wirelessly, the new light system would have a camera system that will sense traffic patterns. Hagley said the system will make for a safer commute, drivers will be less aggravated, as sitting at a pointless red light will be a thing of the past.
"It should alleviate frustrations," Hagley said. "There are camera sensors that will get people moving through red lights. There will be less idle time ‘cause the lights are going to work as a system instead of individually."
Hagley said aside from cutting down road rage, less idle time in traffic means the new system will cut down harmful emissions.
Kim Wolfe, Huntington mayor said the new lights are going to save the city quite a bit of money.
"There will be approximately a $200,000 savings in energy costs, ‘cause these are the modern LED lighting," Wolfe said. "Fewer repairs on the smart system would also save the city in labor costs."
Wolfe said the new system is being funded by an air quality grant. The wireless communication allows the city to direct traffic flow for disasters or special events from one location.
The lights have been installed at major intersections downtown. Hagley said the system will improve the overall commuting experience for Huntington.
"It's going to make things better," Wolfe said. "I'm glad to see the improvement coming."
The City of Huntington began installing the light system in Fall 2011. David Hagley, public works directors, said the new light system would be installed at 55 intersections by the end of 2012.
The light system has been commonly referred to as a "smart system." There are no bulbs — the traffic lights and displays are all energy efficient LED lighting.
"All new lights will be LED, all communication will be controlled wirelessly from the Rahall Transportation Institute," Hagley said.
The new system will alleviate problems experienced with the old traffic system. Each new light will communicate wirelessly. In the past, wires have not adapted to years of wear and tear.
"Over time, wires were severed and broke down," Hagley said. "The old lights had sensor wires in the pavement that were easily torn up."
Aside from communicating wirelessly, the new light system would have a camera system that will sense traffic patterns. Hagley said the system will make for a safer commute, drivers will be less aggravated, as sitting at a pointless red light will be a thing of the past.
"It should alleviate frustrations," Hagley said. "There are camera sensors that will get people moving through red lights. There will be less idle time ‘cause the lights are going to work as a system instead of individually."
Hagley said aside from cutting down road rage, less idle time in traffic means the new system will cut down harmful emissions.
Kim Wolfe, Huntington mayor said the new lights are going to save the city quite a bit of money.
"There will be approximately a $200,000 savings in energy costs, ‘cause these are the modern LED lighting," Wolfe said. "Fewer repairs on the smart system would also save the city in labor costs."
Wolfe said the new system is being funded by an air quality grant. The wireless communication allows the city to direct traffic flow for disasters or special events from one location.
The lights have been installed at major intersections downtown. Hagley said the system will improve the overall commuting experience for Huntington.
"It's going to make things better," Wolfe said. "I'm glad to see the improvement coming."
2012年1月30日星期一
Pike Research: Building Energy Management Systems to Reach $6B by 2020
Pike Research, a global consulting firm, has issued a new report noting that global revenues from building energy management systems are expected to rise almost 14 percent, year over year, through the end of the decade.
The term building energy management systems, or BEMS, refers to computer hardware or software systems which connect to, monitor, and regulate mechanicals like heating, air-conditioning, lighting and mainframes, or other operations that use energy. Building energy management systems can also be used to monitor water and other resource uses.
According to Pike, this means that actual revenues from BEMS are expected to reach slightly less than $6 billion by 2020 – a hefty sum even in what economists have predicted will be a "shrinking" economy. The information, available at no cost from a press release (and in-depth from a very costly report), highlights the expanding building energy management vertical within the building energy efficiency/LEED/EnergyStar marketplace.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is one metric construction engineers and building efficiency retrofit firms use to certify their structures. These certifications are based on different parameters whether the building is new or old, but come in four categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Certified.
Operated under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council, or USGBC, LEED ratings represent what some feel is the "best of the best" in terms of building sustainability, since they measure across a broad spectrum: site sustainability and feasibility, water use, energy use, sustainable materials use, indoor air quality, and innovation in design, and encourage both awareness of and education regarding "green" building initiatives.
Energy Star, a building energy efficiency rating program operating under the guidance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, and the U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE – and representing an offshoot of the Energy Star appliance energy efficiency certification program – is another system which builders and remodelers use to achieve "green" building status; that is, Energy Star-certified buildings use less energy, produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and are less expensive to operate.
Building efficiency and sustainability are gaining increasing exposure as a perfect storm of rising energy costs, reduced energy supplies, U.S. energy security and the environmental movement all converge, with the help of Information Technology, to address issues never before so completely under the control of building managers.
Also known as Smart Grid innovations, or building automation, these IT innovations are helping to curb the vast amount of energy used by commercial buildings – an energy expenditure which was highlighted by President Obama in his 2011 budget proposal, which provided $28.4 billion for DOE policies, including mitigating environmental (climate) risk and maintaining national security.
Elsewhere, wireless sensor networks and software building energy management tools, being developed both in government laboratories and in private companies like Scientific Conservation, Inc. are also saving cash and energy in U.S. buildings, and this perfect storm couldn't be happening at a more perfect time, given a decision by Obama to boost energy efficiency in government buildings by nearly $4 billion between 2012 and 2014.
The term building energy management systems, or BEMS, refers to computer hardware or software systems which connect to, monitor, and regulate mechanicals like heating, air-conditioning, lighting and mainframes, or other operations that use energy. Building energy management systems can also be used to monitor water and other resource uses.
According to Pike, this means that actual revenues from BEMS are expected to reach slightly less than $6 billion by 2020 – a hefty sum even in what economists have predicted will be a "shrinking" economy. The information, available at no cost from a press release (and in-depth from a very costly report), highlights the expanding building energy management vertical within the building energy efficiency/LEED/EnergyStar marketplace.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is one metric construction engineers and building efficiency retrofit firms use to certify their structures. These certifications are based on different parameters whether the building is new or old, but come in four categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Certified.
Operated under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council, or USGBC, LEED ratings represent what some feel is the "best of the best" in terms of building sustainability, since they measure across a broad spectrum: site sustainability and feasibility, water use, energy use, sustainable materials use, indoor air quality, and innovation in design, and encourage both awareness of and education regarding "green" building initiatives.
Energy Star, a building energy efficiency rating program operating under the guidance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, and the U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE – and representing an offshoot of the Energy Star appliance energy efficiency certification program – is another system which builders and remodelers use to achieve "green" building status; that is, Energy Star-certified buildings use less energy, produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and are less expensive to operate.
Building efficiency and sustainability are gaining increasing exposure as a perfect storm of rising energy costs, reduced energy supplies, U.S. energy security and the environmental movement all converge, with the help of Information Technology, to address issues never before so completely under the control of building managers.
Also known as Smart Grid innovations, or building automation, these IT innovations are helping to curb the vast amount of energy used by commercial buildings – an energy expenditure which was highlighted by President Obama in his 2011 budget proposal, which provided $28.4 billion for DOE policies, including mitigating environmental (climate) risk and maintaining national security.
Elsewhere, wireless sensor networks and software building energy management tools, being developed both in government laboratories and in private companies like Scientific Conservation, Inc. are also saving cash and energy in U.S. buildings, and this perfect storm couldn't be happening at a more perfect time, given a decision by Obama to boost energy efficiency in government buildings by nearly $4 billion between 2012 and 2014.
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