The objective of this topic area was to demonstrate innovative technologies and solutions to increase energy efficiency and improve performance of Department of Defense (DoD) buildings. Building performance metrics of particular interest to the Department are energy use intensity, indoor air quality, system and component reliability and durability, and life-cycle cost. Technologies should be appropriate for building retrofit applications. Proposals of integrated combinations of technologies were also of interest, provided there was technical performance or cost benefit to the integrated solution. Technologies of interest included, but were not limited to heating, ventilation and air conditioning; building envelope technologies; water heating; lighting and waste heat recovery (for heating or cooling).

Technology providers were encouraged to partner with Energy Services Companies or engineering/technical service providers to conduct independent measurement and verification of the demonstrated technology’s performance. Demonstrations with the following characteristics were preferable:

• High calculable energy savings, in addition to cost savings, as a direct result of the technology.
• Clear method for measuring the technology’s impact on building performance.
• A clear pathway to technology adoption by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and utility providers for inclusion in Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC) or Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESC)
• Partnering with key stakeholders to enable shared learning and facilitate technology transfer.
• Cost sharing.

Proposed technologies and methods should have completed all proof-of-principle work. Specific DoD site(s) may be suggested in the pre-proposal but were not required to be identified until submittal of the full proposal. ESTCP supports demonstration at a scale sufficient to determine the life-cycle operational cost and performance of the technology.

Efficient, healthy and reliable buildings and building energy systems are critical to supporting military and DoD civilian staff to effectively and safely live, work and play in DoD facilities. More energy efficient and flexible building energy systems reduce annual operating costs and can improve buildings’ resilience to natural or man-made disruptions to the commercial electric utility.

DoD is the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. and among the Federal Government. DoD owns nearly 300,000 buildings across its 500 installations, accounting for nearly 32%1 of DoD's total energy use. It has over 150,000 space heating and cooling units and over 70,000 domestic hot water heaters installed. Many of these legacy units operate at poor operating efficiency levels due to lack of robust and consistent preventative and regular maintenance of these units over the years. Many units are simply run to failure.

Recently constructed DoD buildings generally adhere to current building codes and ASHRAE standards. However, over 50% of the existing building stock was built before 1980 (25% was built before 1950) prior to the implementation of the first building codes established to improve building energy efficiency (~1975). With this large inventory of old inefficient buildings and building systems, there is great opportunity to retrofit these buildings with current and emerging technologies to improve building performance and reduce building operating costs.