City and Community Technical Assistance
NREL technical experts provide technical assistance to cities and communities to help identify and implement a variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy technology solutions. This includes:
Greensburg, Kansas
An International Inspiration for Green Disaster Recovery
- Project assistance
- Program, portfolio, and sustainable community design
- Request for proposals and performance contracting reviews
- State, local, federal, and financial policy analysis
- Strategic planning
- Trainings and workshops.
Disaster Resiliency and Recovery
NREL's comprehensive disaster resiliency and recovery program addresses the energy-related considerations of disaster prevention and planning, response and recovery, and rebuilding. Learn more.
City and Community Example Projects
In many locations, we use an NREL-developed model called integrated deployment to address each location's needs. Some example projects are listed below.
Greensburg, Kansas 
NREL helped Greensburg, Kansas, rebuild green after an EF-5 tornado destroyed or damaged 95% of the town in May 2007. Today, Greensburg has the highest per-capita concentration of LEED® buildings in the United States.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, received technical assistance from NREL to rebuild or renovate K-12 schools and homes, and identify effective energy policy to help the city implement energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
Community Renewable Energy Deployment
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, five communities across the United States received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and technical assistance support from NREL to implement long-term renewable energy technologies that create jobs while providing replicable examples for other local governments, campuses, and utilities.
Contact Us
For more information on NREL's work with cities and communities, contact us.
Tools
Energy Profiler
Summarize overall energy consumption and establish and visualize a preliminary baseline for energy reduction calculations.
Job and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) Models
Analyze the economic impacts of constructing and operating power generation and biofuel plants at the local and state level.
Renewable Energy Technologies Financial Model (RETFinance)
Calculate cost of energy of renewable electricity generation technologies such as biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind.
