California Climate & Energy Collaborative

UC launches Million Light Bulb Challenge community buy program

Sarina Soor
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“The University of California is spearheading a statewide effort to advance the purchase of 1 million high-quality, energy-efficient light bulbs for campus buildings and residences across the state. Under the new Million Light Bulb Challenge community buy program supported by UC’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative, all UC students, staff, faculty and alumni can purchase light bulbs…

From connected street lights to smart cities

Sarina Soor
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“The latest edition of Navigant Research’s Smart City Tracker includes smart city projects in 221 cities, a quarter of which are deploying smart street lighting ranging from initial pilots to citywide and regional deployments that span tens and even hundreds of thousands of lights. This is far from an exhaustive list of street lighting projects,…

Global LED lighting market growing but slowed by key limitation

Sarina Soor
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“Although LEDs have key advantages over traditional lighting technologies — such as efficiency, diversity of colors, quick on/off time, frequent on/off cycling, long lifetime, and shock resistance — P&S Market Research points to several limitations. “Thermal properties, voltage sensitivity, efficiency droop, expensive production, and costly maintenance are hindering their market growth,” the analysis says. “The…

Three new energy efficiency standards go into effect offering customers better lighting choices

Sarina Soor
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“Three new energy efficiency standards went into effect January 1 that give consumers the choice of better quality light bulbs, LEDs, and small-diameter directional lamps. Consumers will save more than $4 billion in aggregate over the first 13 years with the LED and small-diameter directional lamp standards. Consumers will also conserve enough electricity to power…

The new year brings better quality lighting choices to California

Sarina Soor
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“In California there are more than 600 million sockets for general service and reflector light bulbs and about half of those are still using old incandescent light bulbs. Approximately 90 percent of electricity used by traditional light bulbs is wasted as heat instead of visible light. The technology of LEDs and compact fluorescents make the…

Webinar: Upcoming Title 20 Lighting Standards – Dec 21

Sarina Soor
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On December 21, 2017, the Appliances and Outreach and Education Office of the Efficiency Division at the California Energy Commission will present a webinar on the energy efficiency regulations for LED’s, small diameter directional lamps and general service lamps that become effective on January 1, 2018.  The lamps affected by these regulations include LED’s, Small Diameter Directional…

2013 Title 24, Part 6 Lighting Alterations Update: New energy code compliance option may reduce lighting controls requirements and project costs, effective immediately for all projects permitted before December 31, 2016

Sarina Soor
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The California Energy Commission approved the use of an optional compliance pathway for use in non-residential lighting alterations that trigger Title 24, Part 6. This is in addition to the pre-existing two compliance pathways. This new option may (more…)

Whittier Leverages Incentives and Support for Municipal Retrofits – Including Streetlighting, Lighting, HVAC, and VFD Upgrades

Sarina Soor
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As covered in the Whittier Daily News: the City of Whittier is going green. It’s spending about $2.1 million on ways to make street lights and city buildings more energy efficient, a move that will pay for itself in about four years and save hundreds of thousands of dollars afterward, officials said. (more…)

Savings Results from Grass Valley Energy Efficiency and Solar Project

Sarina Soor
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The City of Grass Valley’s June 28th City Council meeting celebrated the completion of a number of municipal energy efficiency and solar projects through an energy performance contract with Opterra Energy, including new solar generation, LED (more…)

NYTimes Coverage and Slideshow: Zero Net Energy Test Homes in Fontana, Homeowner Feedback, and Plans for Expansion

Sarina Soor
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The development of zero net energy (ZNE) homes in Fontana announced last April got press as the focus of this June 3rd New York Times article:  A Suburban Experiment Aims for Free Energy. Visit the New York Times for the full story – (more…)