New Partnership Targets Building Costs and Efficiency
EarthVision Environmental News
06/26/00
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2000 - A new partnership that looks to implement six new or improved energy-saving and homebuilding technologies got a kick start with about $1.1 million in grants from two departments within the federal government. With the funding in place and awarded, the Departments Commerce (DOC) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) say the technologies coming out of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) will be ready in about 18 months.
The research and development grants will fund further development of the following technologies:
A news release from the Commerce Department notes the awards inaugurate the PATH Cooperative Research Program, or PATH-CoRP. As a part of PATH, a public-private initiative launched by President Clinton in 1998, the newly established PATH-CoRP establishes multi-year cooperative research and development agreements with industry, designed to further PATH's goals. These goals include speeding the creation and use of new housing technologies to improve the quality, affordability, durability, energy efficiency and environmental performance of homes. PATH's main mission is to reduce the monthly cost of new housing by 20 percent or more by 2010.
Following is a list showing each of the PATH-CoRP grant awardees, the project, the amount of the federal cost share, the amount of company cost share, and the total partnership investment:
W. Brandt Goldsworthy & Associates, Inc. of Torrance, Calif.
Automatically machined and snap-locking insulated wall panels
$157,221 Federal
$ 67,562 Company
$224,783 Total
AeRock, LLC of Littleton, Colo.
Fiber-fly ash composite building system
$187,770 Federal
$125,180 Company
$312,950 Total
Benchmark Resources, Inc. of Auburn Hills, Mich.
Insulated concrete panel technology
$200,000 Federal
$374,691 Company
$574,691 Total
PowerLight Corporation of Berkeley, Calif.
Solar roof cooling and electricity generation
$197,780 Federal
$131,154 Company
$328,934 Total
Steven Winter Associates, Inc. of Norwalk, Conn.
Energy-saving thermostat with variable deadband control
$186,346 Federal
$ 90,000 Company
$276,346 Total
Persimmon Homes, LLC of Atlanta, Ga.
Optimized building system for locations where construction personnel are scarce
$133,500 Federal
$195,660 Company
$329,160 Total
While PATH is managed by HUD, PATH-CoRP is administered by the DOC's National Institute of Standards and Technology. In addition to these two agencies, PATH partners include the US Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Labor and Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the National Science Foundation; the Federal Housing Finance Board and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Private-sector members include leading homebuilding, real estate, product manufacturing, insurance and financial firms.