The California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program sponsors the development and demonstration of energy-efficient building technologies by bringing environmentally safe, affordable, and reliable energy services and products to the marketplace. The PIER Program annually awards up to $62 million to conduct the most promising public interest energy research by partnering with individuals, businesses, utilities, and public or private research institutions. The PIER Building Program provided start-up funding for the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC). Read more about the PIER Program.

The State Partnership for Energy Efficient Demonstrations (SPEED) Program demonstrates innovative lighting and HVAC technologies developed under the PIER Program. The SPEED program is managed by the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE), which is a branch of the University of California. CLTC is subcontracted by CIEE to develop and implement lighting technology demonstrations.

Over the past several years, PIER has developed partnerships with the University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges, and California Department of General Services. These partnerships include a series of demonstration projects coupled with programmatic support and executed by CLTC to ensure continued deployment of energy-efficient technologies and practices across California. Since its inception, the program has expanded to include new partners such as California cities and municipalities, government agencies, state and federal military, and large commercial end users. The technology demonstration product portfolio also includes products beyond those whose development were directly sponsored by the Energy Commission.

How the demonstration process works

CLTC engineers will set up a meeting with the host site to identify potential technologies for the demonstration. An audit of the site is then performed, and engineers give recommendations for the demonstration, including: energy analysis, photometric analysis, a cost-sharing arrangement, and schedule. Both parties will review the proposal, make changes if necessary, and finalize the agreement. The project then will be submitted to the California Energy Commission for approval. Pending its consent, CLTC will conduct an initial demonstration project, including pre-retrofit monitoring and evaluation. After the Energy Commission has granted approval, the full demonstration will be installed, monitored and evaluated. A final project summary will be provided to the Energy Commission and the host site, and project-specific outreach and case studies will be produced.

Download a summary sheet of current PIER technologies.

If your organization would like to participate in a CLTC demonstration, contact:

Karl Johnson, Research Coordinator
California Institute for Energy and Environment
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
(650) 255-6867
www.uc-ciee.org