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APGA Hosts Net Zero Meeting

By Dan Lapato posted 07-24-2015 01:01 AM

  

On July 21, APGA along with the American Gas Association (AGA) and the New Buildings Institute hosted a joint meeting on the role of natural gas in net zero energy buildings.  In addition to APGA staff, representatives from Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia, the Illinois Public Energy Agency, numerous investor-owned utilities as well as the American Institute of Architects attended the meeting.  While there are number of different definitions, a zero-energy building is generally considered to be a building with zero net energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of energy created on the site.  Net-zero buildings continue to receive discussion at the state and federal level.   

During the course of the one-day meeting, participates heard presentations from KB Home Builders on their net zero homes.  McDonalds discussed how they are integrating net-zero into their restaurants and there was a presentation from the U.S. Army on how they are approaching net-zero from a community perspective.  After the sessions, all of the attendees engaged in a lengthy discussion about the many challenges and opportunities LDCs face with net zero building construction.  The meeting concluded with the group outlining next steps.   As part of this process, the group identified areas that need further research, national priorities and state and local opportunities.  Moving forward, APGA has positioned itself to take the lead along with AGA to continue to guide the discussion.  APGA believes the direct-use of natural gas, such as in the case of combined heat and power (CHP), can play an important role in net-zero buildings. 

The workshop was held at the Gas Technology Institute’s complex outside of Chicago.  For questions on this article or further information on net zero energy buildings, please contact Dan Lapato of AGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at dlapato@apga.org.

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