Through technology demonstrations and technical information materials, FEMP helps introduce new energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies into the Federal sector and beyond. These technologies can help agencies not only save energy and money, but also reduce pollution.
FEMP supports a limited number of technology demonstrations to provide independent performance data to Federal decision-makers and support timely Federal adoption of energy saving and environmentally beneficial technologies. A demonstration brings together a Federal host site, a technology manufacturer, a trade association, a local utility, and a national laboratory.
In these jointly funded, collaborative ventures, the Federal site provides on-site support for the technology evaluation, with the goal of reducing energy and operations and maintenance costs. The manufacturer donates equipment for evaluation, with the goal of establishing a Federal track record and improving technologies based on performance analysis. The local utility validates technology contributions and helps its Federal customer offset increasing capacity requirements. Trade associations disseminate results in order to promote new technologies, emphasize technology transfer, and communicate technology benefits to a wide audience. Finally, FEMP and its national laboratory experts provide technical staff to perform the analyses and prepare technical reports on the demonstrations.
FEMP relies on an interlaboratory council, made up of technical experts from four national laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) to undertake the technology demonstrations, evaluate data, and draft technical materials.