DAYLIGHTING AND EPACT 2005 – What You Need To Know

In 2008, the U.S. Federal Government amended Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) to include the use of qualified new renewable energy sources  to count towards the EO13423 Requirement under EPACT 2005.  How the EO13423 Requirement Impacts the EPACT 2005 Goal is that it requires that all agencies use new renewable energy sources equal to half of the EPACT 2005 renewable energy requirement. Daylighting is specifically mentioned in the latest EPACT language. While EPACT 2005 only allows electricity calculations from renewable energy sources, EO13423 allows agencies to use new non-electric renewable energy sources to meet the requirement for new renewable energy.   How it figures the impact of new non-electric renewable energy sources is through the obtained reduction of kilowatt hour (kWh) usages through the use of daylighting.  This reduction is then ran through the U.S. EPA calculator to determine the offset of coal fire electric plant production of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).  This also directly fits into the new administration’s requirement of “Cap and Trade” or carbon reduction.  As many companies and government agencies already realize, daylighting is the most cost effective and efficient, green energy solution for our need to reduce energy and CO2 production for the U.S. as well as the world.  EPACT 2005 gives us one more incentive to utilize high performance daylighting for our growing worldwide need for energy efficiency.

For more information on EPACT 2005 and the 2008 update, please click on this link (LINK TO THE ATTACHED EPACT 2005 PDF DOCUMENT).  To calculate your CO2 reduction through kWh energy reductions, please visit the U.S. EPA web link for the Greenhouse Gas Calculator at: http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html