Smart Green Buildings  

Grist has a post noting that linking green buildings and the smart grid will "spawn a green energy ecosystem" - "Green buildings wise up".

A new energy ecosystem is emerging that connects smart, green buildings with a smart, green grid to optimize energy flows. Since commercial and industrial buildings represent around 40 percent of U.S. energy use, and homes another 30 percent, this represents the most significant opportunity for energy efficiency and mass-scale renewable generation.

But creating this new green energy ecosystem means linking what are today heavily "stovepiped" separate systems within buildings and between buildings and the grid. It also means expanding the definition of green buildings to include the digital smarts that connect diverse systems. The Green Intelligent Buildings Conference in Baltimore on April 2-3 focused on ways to cut through "stovepipes" and build those new linkages.

"We need to find ways to make the grid smarter, to make buildings smarter, and to have these smarts communicate with each other," keynoter Jeffrey Harris of the Alliance to Save Energy told attendees. This will require new technologies and partnerships that cross traditional boundaries, said the ASE vice president for programs. "We need not just utilities but private industry to be involved."

One key area where new partnerships are needed is within the building industry itself, between green builders and building intelligence providers.

"The sad truth is that many green buildings today are neither highly efficient nor particularly intelligent, and this is a missed opportunity," wrote Paul Ehrlich of the Building Intelligence Group in an article previewing the conference. "We have the potential to deliver green intelligent buildings that are sustainable as well as able to deliver high-performance, low-energy usage."

A green intelligent building "not only has a bike rack, green roof, and waterless urinals, but also the systems, controls, and automation needed to provide improved scheduling, coordination, optimization and usability," Ehrlich wrote.