2021 CURES CPL Project Offerings

Description: Do you have land that could be used for a free-standing solar array? Is your agency or facility considering rooftop solar? The Smart Energy Design Assistance Center at UIUC offers services for large and small agencies to assess solar feasibility on lands and facilities. We provide analysis and guidance on: Suitability of land for solar development; Rooftop solar considerations; Sizing and loads analysis; Economic considerations.
Target audience: Communities with interest in renewable energy; possible energy cost savings project; or climate action planning.
Typical project timeframe: Depends on project, from 3-6 months to 1+ years.
New external funding needed to support work? Yes

Description: If you want to save energy and money but aren’t sure where to start, apply for an energy assessment with SEDAC for independent, expert advice to make your facility more energy efficient. SEDAC energy assessments typically identify energy savings measures that have potential annual cost savings of 10-30%. We can customize the service to your needs, for example to focus on long range capital planning or specialized utility program participation or net zero energy/climate action planning. Now available: Virtual energy assessments, with utility bill analysis, benchmarking, and a virtual walkthrough with a facility operator.
Target audience: All public sector agencies.
Typical project timeframe: Depends on project, from 2-6 months
New external funding needed to support work? Maybe

Description: The Illinois EPA Office of Energy has teamed up with SEDAC and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) to help local municipalities reduce the cost of treating water and wastewater. SEDAC and ISTC provide no-cost energy usage assessments to publicly-owned water and wastewater treatment systems across Illinois. Assessment reports break down recommendations for energy efficiency improvements at each facility, including information such as estimated project costs, simply payback periods, funding opportunities, and the resulting energy and monetary savings. Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois EPA Office of Energy.

Target audience: All publicly owned wastewater and drinking water facilities.
Typical project timeframe: 3 months

Description: The Ameren Illinois Energy Efficiency Program, in partnership with the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) and SEEL, is piloting an Energy Efficiency Workforce Initiative to grow the energy efficiency workforce in Peoria. The initiative focuses on jobs that provide products and services to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings. We do this by strengthening connections among employers, training programs, community organizations, and job seekers, and by offering support services tailored to your needs. Looking beyond this regionally focused pilot we look forward to engaging communities and stakeholder across Illinois in ways that could include research, program technical assistance and implementation support, and connectivity to existing and emerging energy workforce initiatives.

Target audience: county/regional/statewide workforce development entities
Typical project timeframe: TBD – contact to discuss
New external funding needed to support work? Maybe

Description: The Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC), in partnership with the Illinois EPA Office of Energy, provides training to increase awareness of the Illinois Energy Conservation Code and to improve the energy efficiency of new construction and renovation in Illinois. SEDAC offers workshops, webinars, online training, resources, and technical support. Our training program serves community code officials, construction professionals and trades, and design professionals such as architects and engineers in Illinois. Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois EPA Office of Energy.

Target Audience: Municipalities, Counties, Building officials, Designers & Trades
Typical project timeframe: TBD – contact to discuss
New external funding needed to support work? No

Description: We are offering an assessment of environmental and social inequalities and vulnerability to climate change impacts in small, medium, and large urban and rural communities to help with local hazard mitigation planning and operations. This will enhance and target efforts to increase resiliency to environmental issues that are missed in larger sustainability discussions. The effort will also help leaders consider how climate change has or will affect existing inequities and environmental justice issues in their communities.
Target audience: This project can be implemented for any size community that has rich data on socioeconomic, health, and any additional variables that the community believes is a stressor. However, the more extensive the data spatially and temporally, the better vulnerability assessment can be made. OR if resources permitting, it can be implanted over the whole state of Illinois which can also provide a relative comparison of communities and heterogeneity in vulnerability — which can be useful to develop priorities and design solutions,
Typical timeframe: Expecting 1-year to finish the project
New external funding needed to support work? Yes

Description: The Illinois Geothermal Coalition, a group of geothermal professional and researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working together to strengthen and advance the implementation of geothermal energy systems in Illinois. Research pertaining to the design and operation of ground source heat pumps systems, energy foundations and piles, underground thermal energy storage, deep direct-use geothermal systems, conversion of oil/gas wells to enhanced geothermal systems, and district and community geothermal systems are applicable to communities in all areas of Illinois. Developing geothermal energy resources directly supports the State’s main mandate in the recently enacted Climate and Equitable Jobs Act to fully electrify the energy system and replace traditional fossil fuel heating and cooling systems. The experts and their knowledge-base would be available to communities to develop the most efficient and cost-effective geothermal systems based on the underground geologic conditions and engineering design considerations. Electrification of heating and cooling systems can achieve significant economic and environmental benefits, including a >40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy bills (up to 70% lower), energy efficiencies 400% higher, and improved grid management. Geothermal energy offers a continuous and dispatchable energy that provides a level of resiliency that solar and wind energy systems cannot, running 24/7, and not dependent on favorable weather conditions.

Description: Research project that includes outreach and educational campaign with public and stakeholders on utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal across Illinois. Includes discussion around future possibilities for harvesting from subsurface and energy efficiency across various business sectors and community scales.

The outcomes of the previously funded project on geothermal energy systems have been disseminated via various invited talks at the conferences and annual meetings of oil and gas industry in addition to technical publications. A growing public interest on the proposed approach was noticed at those venues. We are aiming to reach out to a wider community by taking our approach one step further via our education and outreach program.

Estimated Duration: 12 to 18 months

Description: Technical, and education and outreach programs to disseminate information to government agencies, stakeholders, and the public. The programs are designed to introduce the various technologies and applications, focusing on their energy cost savings, efficiency, and environmental benefits. They would include unbiased data and interpretations based on research and real-world experiences. Even though geothermal energy technologies were first developed in the early 1960’s, the installation for heating and cooling applications has been relatively limited compared to solar and wind energy systems. This effort would introduce stakeholders to future possibilities for conserving energy and optimizing the performance of thermal energy across various business sectors and community scales.

The project is intended to leverage the research and extension capabilities at the University of Illinois and its partnering organizations to improve the sustainability small and medium communities. The wider adoption of geothermal energy systems is one strategy for building resiliency to climate change and improving the livability of communities and addresses one aspect of the water/food/energy nexus.

Target audience: The outcomes of the proposed technical, and education and outreach programs will be beneficial to the full range of communities and social units. Typically, geothermal technologies are utilized at single residences, but offer greater benefits when tied to community and district energy systems serving multiple properties, such as neighborhoods.
Estimated Duration: 12 to 18 months; depends on the community’s experience with geothermal energy technologies and their overall goals.

Description: Combined heat and power (CHP) can provide a desired level of energy security/emergency preparedness to communities by providing on-site, or distributed, generation of power. CHP can provide reliable energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week that, if desired, can be integrated with solar generation and energy storage resources to form a microgrid capable of being independent of the grid. CHP is a natural fit for any community’s public service infrastructure that “never closes” like hospitals, nursing homes, wastewater treatment plants, drinking water treatment plants, data management centers, economically important industry/business, etc. The biogas that is produced through anaerobic digestion at community waste water treatment plants can be captured and used as a free (and renewable) fuel for a CHP system that generates electricity to run the process equipment as well as provide heat for adjacent buildings.

Target audience: CHP can be configured at any scale to serve community needs. For example, CHP can serve a single application like a community healthcare facility. It can also be designed to serve a combination of facilities chosen by the community—perhaps the police station, a public school, a YMCA/emergency shelter, a grocery store, a local manufacturing business, etc. CHP is a proven suite of technologies that simultaneously generates electricity and usable thermal energy from a single source of fuel. CHP can be fueled by renewable natural gas, biogas, propane, hydrogen, landfill gas, or natural gas. Key to the significant increase in total system efficiency of CHP is the recovery and use of the otherwise wasted heat from the electric generation process. This increased efficiency means less fuel needed to achieve the same results and a concurrent reduction in fuel cost and carbon emissions. CHP energy solutions can be pre-packaged, “plug and play” units or individually tailored systems that meet the specific needs and opportunities of a community.
Typical project timeframe: 1-3 years
New external funding needed to support work? No

Description: This program provides no cost energy efficiency assessments to small and medium sized industrial facilities in Illinois. The goal of the assessment is to help these facilities reduce their energy related costs which should lead to increased resiliency from fluctuating utility prices, increased cash flow, a better overall understanding of their energy use and costs, and a reduction in CO2 emissions. The assessment will include a site visit, a baseline energy analysis of utility bills, a comprehensive list of potential energy and cost saving measures, and a summary of any additional funding which may be available to assist with the cost of recommendations. Assessments are led by trained engineering students from UIC who get real field experience before they graduate and are able to jump start their careers upon graduating.
Target audience: Rural communities interested in ensuring that local plants are more resilient and/or interested in increased cash flow from energy efficiency savings (new jobs could be created or new machinery and equipment could be purchased to further increase the economic output of a plant). Note many rural plants simply do not have the time, money, or bandwidth to step back and perform an energy assessment. This program would do that for the plant and give them a comprehensive look at where they stand energy and cost wise and what they can focus on to improve at no cost to the plant.
Typical project timeframe: From site visit date to report delivery the maximum amount of time allowed is 60 days. Any additional communication before that usually takes about a month, so the total engagement would be most likely 2-3 months.
New external funding needed to support work? No

Description: Our project team can conduct energy efficiency assessments for rural, small, and medium sized communities in Illinois. Various components of the building including, but not limited to lighting, envelope, heating and cooling systems, and process equipment will be assessed for energy efficient opportunities. The energy assessments would result in a comprehensive report detailing the assessment analysis findings and recommended best practices for improving the overall community energy efficiency.

Target audience: Our project team’s conduction of energy efficiency assessments has experiencing in addressing the needs in rural residential, low-income, public housing, religious organizations, educational institutions, various public entities (including correctional facilities), industrial, and commercial facilities. Many of the communities we work with have a high energy use burden. Communities with a high utility burden, that are also often underserved, would be the most impacted by our services that highlight opportunities where energy improvements can be addressed and economic savings can be realized. Our project team has worked with customers to complete energy improvements including, but not limited to updating components pertaining to lighting, building envelope, process equipment, and the heating and cooling systems of buildings. By providing guidance on how to lower energy bills through energy efficient upgrades, communities can improve their overall resiliency.
Typical project timeframe: Time of engagement would vary based on the community and complexity of buildings within communities targeted for assessments. Coordination, assessment walkthrough, analysis and report write up can generally take one to two months for completion. Follow up engagement to guide projects through completion with clients will vary widely based on the complexity projects pursued.

New external funding needed to support work? No

Description: The goal of the Technical Education and Analysis for Community Hauling and Anaerobic Digesters (TEACH AD) Program is to help communities and water resource recovery facilities in the Midwest region divert food waste from landfills by providing education and no-cost technical assistance to explore the increased adoption of anaerobic digestion and renewable energy biogas technologies. Technical Assessments utilizing the U.S. EPA’s Co-Digestion Economic Analysis Tool (CoEAT) along with other tools and will provide technical support to facilities and communities evaluating the use of new and existing anaerobic digesters to divert food waste from landfills.

Target audience: Municipalities are the type of communities where this program can be more impactful. A digester built by a municipality or a community-based digester represents a win-win situation for the whole community in which it operates.

Project Duration: Estimated 1-6 months
New external funding needed to support work? No

Description: Illinois EPA’s Office of Energy is teaming up with ISTC and Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) to help local municipalities reduce the cost of water and wastewater treatment. SEDAC and ISTC will provide free energy usage assessments to publicly-owned water treatment and wastewater treatment plants.

For more information about the program, the saving communities can accrue, and community qualifications go to the Public Water Infrastructure Plant Efficiency Program website

Description: Interested in learning about and/or get involved in a research initiative supporting the EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Program Strategic Plan? The SMM program priorities are:
(1) Decrease disposal rate. This objective focuses on tracking and reducing the overall amount of materials disposed, which would encompass activities targeting source reduction, reuse, recycling, and prevention.
(2) Reduce environmental impacts of materials. This objective focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of materials across their life cycle, including greenhouse gas emissions and reductions in water and energy use.
(3) Increase socio-economic benefits. This objective focuses on tracking and reporting material impacts on the economy as well as social aspects.
(4) Increase capacity of state and local governments, communities, and key stakeholders to adopt and implement SMM policies, practices, and incentives. This objective involves increasing the number of states and communities where SMM capacity has been expanded as a result of EPA’s technical assistance and support. This objective also involves increasing the per capita quantity and/or quality of recyclables recovered for manufacturing and increasing the number of households with access to organic collection and recycling.

Research is already underway addressing SMM priority areas 1 and 4, focusing on Municipal and/or Industrial Recycling Markets in Region 5 through a partnership with the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO), and the application of blockchain technology.

Description: The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at UIUC is offering energy efficiency assessments for community buildings.

Target audience: Any Community
Requires community cover cost of assessment.

Description: “Zero waste” is an approach to the way materials are handled through their entire life cycle.  In our vision of zero waste, materials are designed to cycle infinitely through phases of useful life, improving environmental and human health wherever possible. In striving toward this vision, materials not designed for zero waste should be put to their highest and best use.

The University of Illinois’ Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Technical Assistance Program (TAP) provides a variety of cost-effective, sustainable material management services to assist clients with striving toward this vision of zero waste.  ISTC helps organizations achieve zero waste by being a resource for innovative disposal and reuse of materials. ISTC provides information and technical assistance that help organizations improve their environmental footprint. We conduct waste audits and assist with materials management planning, supply chain optimization, and stakeholder engagement.

Services:

Enhanced Waste Audits

We design and implement site-specific waste audits ranging in scope from individual buildings to large communities. By analyzing both material inputs and outputs within a facility, we identify data-driven opportunities to help your organization achieve zero waste.

Waste Management Planning

We help clients to identify gaps in and opportunities to improve existing waste management processes by examining infrastructure, service providers, costs, collection practices, and user engagement. Additionally, we can offer solutions for site-specific constraints that prevent greater waste diversion.

Composting/Anaerobic Digestion

TAP conducts business outreach and research to support food waste reduction and diversion efforts. We assist clients with setting up successful composting programs including waste stream assessments, designing signage, and training employees. We can also guide you in considering various food scrap technology options, such as aerobic and anaerobic digestion, and in-vessel composting.

Stakeholder Engagement

TAP partners with employees, students, and communities to improve existing waste reduction programs through education and training. We provide advice on communication strategies that lead to lasting behavior change.

Target audience: Any private or public entity.

Expected duration of projects: Varies

Expected cost to community? Varies based on scope of services.  ISTC charges fees based on cost recovery.