Pennsylvania State University
IN-4: Innovation 4

Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings
A U.S. DOE Energy Innovation Hub

Buildings currently consume approximately 40 percent of all prime energy utilized in the U.S. and 70 percent of all electricity generated. A 50 percent reduction in energy use in buildings would have the equivalent effect of taking every car and small truck in the U.S. off the road!

The Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC) for Energy Efficient Buildings was established in February 2011 with funding from four federal agencies and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The goals of the GPIC are to:

• Transform building retrofit industry from serial fragmentation to integrated systems methods;
• Provide usable tools and technologies that can reduce energy use in buildings by 50 percent;
• Stimulate private investment and quality job creation in Greater Philadelphia and beyond.

The strategic focus of the GPIC is on full-spectrum energy efficient retrofit of average size commercial and multi-family residential buildings. GPIC metrics are:

• Energy Efficiency: Annual energy savings per square foot of space;
• Scalability: Affordability of energy efficiency technologies and systems;
• Quality of Life: Safety and health of energy efficient building indoor environments;
• Regional Transformation: Change in building industry operations and cluster development;
• Economic Development: New jobs created or retained in energy efficient retrofit industry.

The location for the GPIC is the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The Navy Yard includes 270 existing and new buildings that can be utilized as test beds, and an independent unregulated micro-grid being developed as a resource for development and demonstration smart-grid technologies. The 23 GPIC member organizations are organized into six task groups:

• Design Tools: Develop and deliver integrated processes, computational tools, software, and simulation environment for energy-efficient building system design;
• Integrated Technologies: Develop new component technologies including innovative envelopes, power generation and storage technologies, new lighting systems, and robust control and diagnostic systems and scalable systems solutions for full spectrum retrofits;
• Policy, Markets, and Behavior: Discover the optimal mix of incentives, mandates, and automation to achieve energy efficiency in buildings and design policy instruments that flexibly deploy in cities and states to achieve energy efficiency;
• Education and Workforce Development: Develop skills in energy efficient building systems at all levels, including solar, smart grid, building energy efficiency auditing, integrated design and project management;
• Deployment and Commercialization: Provide funding and other commercialization assistance and market discoveries that inventing GPIC member organizations elect not to commercialize themselves;
• Collaborative Demonstrations: GPIC technologies, systems, and methods will be demonstrated via retrofit projects in Greater Philadelphia including Building 661 a full-spectrum energy efficient building retrofit at the Navy Yard.