Efficiency Peak in the Rockies Photograph courtesy Patrick H.
Corkery, NREL The U.S. government's clean energy research team
now works on a campus in the Rocky Mountain foothills that aims
to showcase the promise for better buildings. With Colorado's
night air and intense sunlight helping to cool, heat and light
the space for more than 800 workers, the new $64 million
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Research Support
Facility uses half the energy of a more typical office building.
"It is, to our knowledge, the world's most efficient building,"
says Dan Arvizu, the laboratory director. The H-shaped edifice
in Golden, Colorado (map) is at the vanguard of an effort by the
federal government—the largest single energy consumer in the
U.S. economy—to prove that it is possible to use far less power,
even with complex and diverse jobs to do. (Related: Overview
Story) Following is a collection of U.S. government buildings
that exemplify that efficiency drive, in many cases overcoming
daunting obstacles with