The federal government has 300,000 buildings, and they’re massive energy hogs. New tech being piloted could slash their carbon footprint.

The Biden administration has set a series of ambitious energy and carbon emissions goals, including using energy that is 100% free of greenhouse gas pollution by 2030, purchasing only non-gas-powered vehicles by 2035, and producing net zero carbon emissions from federal buildings by 2045. With a portfolio of more than 300,000 buildings and a fleet of 600,000 cars and trucks, meeting these goals will require a lot of new technology—and soon.

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The U.S. General Services Administration is on the hunt for that zero-emission, energy-saving technology, and has just announced the latest batch of novel tools and building materials that may help the government meet its goals. Through its Green Proving Ground program, the GSA is using some of the buildings in its portfolio to evaluate these technologies, utilizing real-world conditions to test, and hopefully prove, their ability to drastically cut the environmental impact of the federal government.

Six technologies have been selected for implementation in federal buildings. From a transparent film that boosts the thermal efficiency of windows to a tracking system that allows photovoltaic panels to follow the sun to a heat pump that uses captured CO2, the new technologies represent the kind of innovative improvements that could be scaled up to cover the hundreds of thousands of buildings under the government’s purview, and maybe beyond.

One is a new bidirectional electric vehicle charging system that enables EVs in the federal fleet to pull from the grid while pushing energy back into buildings during peak loads. They essentially serve as mobile batteries that can provide energy to buildings when buying it from the grid has a high cost or a high carbon impact. Developed by Virginia-based Fermata Energy, this technology has already been adopted by some small electric utilities.

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About Fermata Energy

Park it. Plug it. Profit.TM Fermata Energy’s proprietary vehicle-to-everything (V2X) software platform and bidirectional chargers turn EVs into mobile energy storage assets, making it possible for EVs owners to combat climate change, increase energy resilience, and reduce energy costs. Learn more at www.fermataenergy.com, and follow us on Twitter (@FermataEnergy) and LinkedIn.