U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Commercialization & Deployment – Community Renewable Energy Deployment

The U.S. Department of Energy selected five Community Renewable Energy Deployment (CommRE) projects to receive funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The projects will help communities implement long-term renewable energy technologies, create jobs, and provide examples for replication in other local governments, campuses, or small utilities. Read about CommRE goals, funding, technical assistance, and how to contact us.

Learn about similar efforts such as the Renewable-Based Energy Secure Communities (RESCO) projects in California.

Projects

Photo showing the equipment room of an industrial building with cement floors and walls. A man is standing in the background.

The City of Montpelier's planned combined heat and power system will heat 1.8 million square feet of building space and is projected to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 50,000 tons.
Credit: Bernard Blessinger

Photo of a large piece of metal machinery on concrete located outside of a building.

The Forest County Potawatomi Tribe's combined heat and power biomass facility will provide heating, cooling, and electricity for the Tribe's government buildings.
Credit: Dennis Jones

Photo of a tri-level apartment complex under construction.

Once complete, the UC Davis West Village Square will consist of several 4-6 person student apartments for a total of nearly 2,000 beds.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of five large cylinder outdoor storage tanks.

Each of the five above-ground digestion tanks plays a different role in the biogas generation process at the UC Davis pilot Biogas Energy Project.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of a metal machine sitting outside. The machine has two distinct pieces of equipment and stairs on the left side.

The UC Davis pilot Biogas Energy Project waste collection station is a repository for diverse sources of organic solid waste such as agricultural, manure, and food/restaurant waste.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of a woman standing outside and sideways and pointing to several large storage tanks behind her. A sign reads "Biogas Energy Project."

Dr. Zhang, a professor at UC Davis who designed the campus's pilot Biogas Energy Project, describes the process by which biogas is generated using multiple above ground digestion tanks.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of an outdoor, large cylinder storage tank with stairs leading up from the ground to the top of the tank. A large sign reads "Biogas Energy Project".

Completed in 2007, the UC Davis pilot Biogas Energy Project facility is now used to research optimal feedstock waste streams.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of dead grass in the foreground with a highway and construction equipment in the background.

SMUD plans to install dual-axis tracking concentrating solar photovoltaic technology on the rights-of-way at this intersection of highway 50 and Mather Field Road in Sacramento, California.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

Photo of a farm with bales of hay covered by a steel structure in the background and several piles of dirt in the foreground. One pile of dirt is sitting directly underneath a machine with pipes.

SMUD plans to install an anaerobic digester system at the Van Warmerdam dairy to convert animal waste into electricity and reduce the release of methane gas into the atmosphere.
Courtesy of Curt Robinson

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Map of the United States with colored dots to indicate the 5 locations of the Community Renewable Energy Deployment projects. The locations are:

  1. Montpelier, Vermont. Project: combined heat and power district energy system. Funding received: $8 million. Learn more.
  2. Forest County, Wisconsin. Project: combined heat and power biomass facility. Funding received: $2.5 million. Learn more.
  3. Phillips County, Colorado. Project: 30 megawatt community-owned wind farm. Funding received: more than $2.5 million. Learn more.
  4. Sacramento, California. Projects: solar highways and biogas digestion systems. Funding received: more than $5 million. Learn more.
  5. Davis, California. Project: energy efficiency and renewable energy sources with a smart grid. Funding received: $2.5 million. Learn more.