Boston – WinnCompanies has been awarded a $6.56 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to work with Massachusetts’ housing and energy agencies on developing state-of-the-art clean technologies to improve energy efficiency in existing public and private apartment communities.
The project will focus on new energy efficiency innovations at up to 20 apartment communities, representing over 2,000 homes, selected from two large affordable and mixed income housing portfolios located in Massachusetts. The project will serve a diverse range of multifamily properties, including certain state-assisted public housing communities, with the greatest opportunity for innovative “grid interactive efficient buildings” (GEBs) strategies.
WinnCompanies’ energy services arm, formally known as Open Market ESCO, was one of 10 organizations in the United States to receive a grant to pursue advances in GEB buildings that interact with the electrical grid to optimize their energy consumption, substantially decreasing carbon emissions, and providing a model for reducing the building sector’s contribution to the climate crisis.
The project team, including the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation CMI will evaluate multifamily properties across Massachusetts, particularly focused in the Merrimack Valley region, including Lowell and Lawrence.
The four-year initiative is expected to be implemented in three phases. The first 18 months will focus on project planning, property evaluation, design, and financing. It will be followed by construction, monitoring, and evaluation. It will implement new technologies and integrate numerous vendors and approaches, requiring a level of up-front planning and design, including collaboration with key stakeholders such as utility providers and residents.
