42 U.S.C. § 17082 — Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative

(a) Definitions. (1) "Consortium" means a High-Performance Green Building Consortium selected by the Commercial Director. (2) "Initiative" means the Zero-Net-Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative established under (b)(1). (3) "Zero-net-energy commercial building" means a high-performance commercial building designed, constructed, and operated to (A) require a greatly reduced quantity of energy to operate, (B) meet the balance of its energy needs from sources that do not produce greenhouse gases, (C) as a result produce no net greenhouse gas emissions, and (D) remain economically viable. (b) Establishment. (1) The Commercial Director must establish an initiative, called the "Zero-Net-Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative," to (A) reduce the quantity of energy used by commercial buildings in the United States, and (B) achieve the development of zero-net-energy commercial buildings in the United States. (2) Consortium. (A) By June 16, 2008, the Commercial Director must competitively select, and enter into an agreement with, a consortium to develop and carry out the initiative. (B) In entering that agreement, the Commercial Director must use the authority in section 7256(g) of this title to the maximum extent practicable. (c) Goal of initiative. The initiative's goal is to develop and spread technologies, practices, and policies for developing and establishing zero-net-energy commercial buildings for (1) any commercial building newly constructed in the United States by 2030; (2) 50 percent of the United States commercial building stock by 2040; and (3) all commercial buildings in the United States by 2050. (d) Components. In carrying out the initiative, the Commercial Director, consulting the consortium, may: (1) research building science, design, materials, components, equipment and controls, operation and other practices, integration, energy-use measurement, and benchmarking; (2) run pilot programs and demonstration projects testing replicable approaches to energy-efficient commercial buildings across building types and climate zones; (3) conduct deployment, dissemination, and technical assistance activities to encourage wide adoption of these technologies, practices, and policies, including demand-response technologies; (4) conduct other research, development, demonstration, and deployment work needed to meet each of the initiative's goals, as the Commercial Director decides; (5) develop training materials and courses for building professionals and trades on achieving cost-effective, high-performance energy-efficient buildings; (6) develop and share public education materials on the benefits and cost-effectiveness of high-performance energy-efficient buildings; (7) support code-setting organizations and state and local governments in setting minimum building-code performance standards that recognize the availability of high-performance energy-efficient building technologies; (8) develop strategies to overcome split incentives — between builders and buyers, and landlords and tenants — so that cost-effective, life-cycle energy-efficiency investments actually get made; and (9) develop better ways to measure and verify energy savings and performance, for public sharing. (e) Cost sharing. In carrying out this section, the Commercial Director must require cost sharing under section 16352 of this title. (f) Authorization of appropriations. Congress authorized: (1) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; (2) $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 and 2010; (3) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 and 2012; and (4) $200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2013 through 2018.