World Water Day, which takes place every March 22, aims to increase awareness of the millions of people who don’t have access to clean drinking water. (See related quiz: “What You Don’t Know About Water and Energy“)

Earlier this year, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance for Water Efficiency announced their first awards for five programs that a panel decided were exemplary, and seven more that were recognized with honorable mentions. The panel accepted nominations for projects in the U.S., Canada and Australia that were considered innovative and comprehensive.

Because water and energy are intrinsically linked, saving energy saves water, and vice versa. Below, learn about five of the programs that were acknowledged by ACEEE and AWE. (See related story: “Water Demand for Energy to Double by 2035“)

Darden Restaurants: Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Darden is the world’s largest full-scale restaurant company. It owns several well-known brands, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse. It received an exemplary recognition in the commercial category for its 15 X 15 goal of reducing energy and water use by 15 percent in each of its restaurants by the year 2015, compared with a 2008 baseline. The company kicked off the program in 2009, and just two years later, it had already exceeded its water savings goal with a 17 percent savings, and reached an 8 percent savings in energy. The panel said Darden’s efforts show companies how they can save money by saving water and energy. Over the first two fiscal years of the project, Darden invested $3.3 million and achieved an average of $6 million in annual savings.

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority: Since it was established nearly 30 years ago, the MWRA has evolved from a water efficiency program into a long-term sustainability program, including conservation efforts, leak detection, renewable energy and on-site power generation. Recognized as exemplary by the panel, the project has saved 140 million gallons of water per day, saved its customers $350 million in avoided costs from water efficiency, and saved $24 million annually from energy management. It’s also improved the environments of local rivers and aquifers.

Southern California Edison: The electric utility’s Leak Detection Pilot Program helps water utilities find leaks and recommend repairs — saving both water and the energy that is embedded in its supply, conveyance, treatment and distribution systems. The panel gave the program an exemplary recognition because of the example it sets for water and energy utilities working together.

Florida Green Building Coalition: Started in 2001, the coalition has a green building checklist targeting water and energy in new residential construction that is specific to Florida’s climate. The panel gave the program an honorable mention for being “promising” because participation remains low. About 5,400 homes have been certified so far, according to the FGBC, and the program has resulted in an average of 15 percent savings in electricity consumption and a 20-percent drop in water use per household over buildings that are code-compliant.

City of Santa Rosa, California: The city’s Ozone Laundry Program was also called “promising” because of its successful use of an emerging technology that saves water and energy. Implemented in 2009, the project is recognized for its strong market penetration and large savings.

The other two programs named exemplary were the city of Boulder, Colorado for its energy performance contracting program and the United Technologies Corporation for its 2015 sustainability goals. Among the remaining honorable mentions: Promising Program awards went to the city of Austin, Texas; the town of Windsor, California; the Bonneville Power Administration, based in the Pacific Northwest; and the Denver Building Owners and Managers Association. Living Wise, a student conservation program, earned a Sustainable Program recognition.

The three-year effort, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is funded by a $4.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. NCAR is working with universities, utilities and other energy companies, as well as commercial forecast providers, to predict with far more accuracy and specificity when cloud cover could reduce the amount of energy coming from the sun.

More than half of all states in the U.S. have required that utilities increase their use of renewable energy, but renewables are inherently variable. The hope is that solar can follow the example of wind, which now has far more reliable forecasts from a previous NCAR effort. (Related post: “Focusing on Facts: Can We Get All of Our Energy from Renewables?“)

The team is designing a prototype system that would forecast sunlight and the resulting power every 15 minutes over specific solar facilities.

One of the biggest challenges energy companies face with solar power is the ability to anticipate how much of it will be available — and when — so that they can reliably work it into the grid. (See related: “The Big Energy Question: What to Develop Next?“)

If an incorrect forecast shows that there will be more solar energy available than there is, a utility has to buy more on the wholesale market to make up for it — likely at a higher price than they would pay if they could plan ahead for it.

“What happens when a cloud comes over and cuts the production in half, and we as an ISO [independent system operator] have to go out and procure that energy? Then when you go to buy that energy it’s like buying an airline ticket” at the last minute, so it’s more expensive, explained Jim Blatchford, who helps integrate renewable energy into the smart grid for the California ISO, one of NCAR’s partners in the project.

“If we can predict what’s going on and we can line up that generation and buy it in the future instead of in real time,” the company can save money, he said.

Likewise, if more sun than is expected produces excess solar power, that extra energy can go to waste because currently there is no cost-effective way to store it.

“It’s critical for utility managers to know how much sunlight will be reaching solar energy plants in order to have confidence that they can supply sufficient power when their customers need it,” said Sue Ellen Haupt, director of NCAR’s Weather Systems and Assessment Program and the lead researcher on the solar energy project, in a statement. “These detailed cloud and irradiance forecasts are a vital step in using more energy from the sun.”

Nick Depmer, one of the managers on the trade floor at Xcel Energy in Colorado, knows that firsthand.

“You have to be able to unload or load up other assets to fill in that void,” he said. “If you can anticipate that issue, then you can react to it. The more accurate your forecast, the better.”

NCAR worked with Xcel to create a detailed wind energy forecast that saved Xcel ratepayers an estimated $6 million in a year. But determining cloud cover accurately and specifically always has been a challenge for meteorologists, because there are different types of clouds, and they’re affected by so many factors, including wind, humidity, surface heat, atmospheric gases, and more.

Russ Bigley, a meteorologist with Xcel, said the NCAR-led research team will start with the same atmospheric model that was used for wind, and tweak it to work for solar. He said solar forecasts that look further out might be easier than those for wind, but “solar on a five-minute basis is probably going to be a lot more difficult than the wind.”

Both Bigley and Depmer said that wind forecasting had come a long way with the NCAR project, in large part because information that companies might otherwise have kept to themselves was released. They’re hopeful the same will be true for solar, but they’re not convinced better forecasting will be the ultimate game changer because of solar’s cost.

Utilities do currently use solar forecasting, but they are looking for more detail.

“We do use computer models and we push that into a solar forecast based on cloud cover,” Bigley said. “I think right now … the state of the forecasting is probably in its infancy, and that’s partly because the penetration level of solar is not that great compared with other generation assets.”

The California ISO uses some solar forecasts in the two-hour range, but “we want to get it in closer to real time,” Blatchford said.

The research team will put in place a range of observing instruments, including lidars (laser-based technology that takes measurements in the atmosphere); specialized computer models; and mathematical and artificial intelligence techniques, according to a press release. A key part of the system will be placing groups of three sky imagers in each of several locations. They will observe the whole sky, triangulate the height and depth of clouds, and trace their paths across the sky.

Researchers plan to test the system in several geographic areas and during different weather patterns throughout the year.

The forecasts would then be able to predict when, where and what type of clouds would form over a specific area, as all of those factors have a varying impact on the amount of sunlight that gets through.

The utilities and ISOs can then look at the forecast and determine, “Where’s the sun in relation to those clouds? How’s it going to hit my solar farm?” said Blatchford. “This is all really just in its infancy. We’re [becoming] a little bit smarter, a little bit more advanced.”

As of this weekend, Chu will become the nation’s longest-serving energy secretary, a record previously held by Spencer Abraham, who served in the Cabinet post under President George W. Bush. The former director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Chu was largely a newcomer to politics when he took on the post in 2009.

He said he will stay on as head of the Department of Energy at least until the end of this month, and possibly until a successor is confirmed.

“During his time as Secretary, Steve helped my Administration move America towards real energy independence,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House on Friday. “Over the past four years, we have doubled the use of renewable energy, dramatically reduced our dependence on foreign oil, and put our country on a path to win the global race for clean energy jobs.”

In a lengthy letter to Energy Department employees, Chu said, “I came with dreams, and am leaving with a set of accomplishments that we should all be proud of.”

In addition to the achievements mentioned by the president, Chu also noted the implementation of the ARPA-E program, which funds high-risk, high-reward energy research, being entrusted by Congress with a $36 billion investment through the Recovery Act to create more clean energy jobs, as well as efforts like helping one million low-income homeowners weatherize their homes. (See related story: “Storage, Biofuel Lead $156 Million in Energy Research Grants“)

Chu played an instrumental role in helping to measure and eventually stop the flow of oil from BP’s Macondo well after the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. He personally worked with BP during its attempts to end the spill, an effort so admired by President Obama that, on at least one occasion, the president was a bit overzealous in his praise for it.

Though Chu had significant achievements during his tenure, controversy over the DoE’s failed $528 million loan to Solyndra, the solar panel maker that later went bankrupt and laid off its 1,100 employees, marked a low point. He was the subject of harsh criticism, especially from Republican lawmakers, who said Chu and his staff missed warning signs about Solyndra. Chu said while its outcome was “regrettable,” the loan was given “proper, rigorous scrutiny and healthy debate” before it was approved in 2009.

After a year and a half of investigations, no wrongdoing was proven, according to Politico.

Following on the heels of the Solyndra failure was A123 Systems, which manufactures electric car batteries. That company received $249 million in federal grants as part of the stimulus but filed for bankruptcy in October. (See also: “Battery Maker A123 Sold at Auction to Chinese Firm“)

“While critics try hard to discredit the [Recovery Act grants and loans] program, the truth is that only one percent of the companies of the companies we funded went bankrupt,” Chu wrote in his farewell letter Friday. “That one percent has gotten more attention than the 99 percent that have not.”

The White House said that no decisions have been made yet on a nominee to take Chu’s place, but the speculation has begun. Some possible successors include former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, and former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Ernie Moniz has also been mentioned.

As for Chu, he said in his letter that he and his wife were “eager to return to California.”

“I would like to return to an academic life of teaching and research, but will still work to advance the missions that we have been working on together for the last four years,” he wrote.

The newly redesigned, midsize sedan is offered with three different engines: gas-electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid and gasoline. The base model starts at $21,700, while the gas-electric hybrid, rated at 47 mpg for both city and highway driving by the EPA, starts at $27,200.

The Fusion was recognized for its low petroleum use and low carbon dioxide emissions, as well as for its competitive pricing, reported the LA Times.

The Green Car Journal’s award is decided by a prestigious panel of judges, including environmental leaders such as Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune, Global Green USA President Matt Petersen, and Ocean Futures Society president Jean-Michel Cousteau, along with car enthusiast and late night comedian Jay Leno and the journal’s staff.

“We’ve moved our brand from laggard to leader in fuel economy,” said Dave Mondragon, Ford’s general marketing manager as he accepted the award.

“The 2013 Ford Fusion approaches the market with a ‘game-on’ attitude,” said Ron Cogan, publisher of The Green Car Journal.

U.S. automakers were well represented in the group of finalists for the recognition. The Fusion was up against Ford’s own C-Max, the Dodge Dart Aero, the Mazda CX-5 SkyACTIV and the Toyota Prius c.

For its mileage, the Fusion is second only to the Prius c, which gets 53 mpg, according to the Detroit News.

Previous winners of the award include the 2012 Honda Civic GX Natural Gas, 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2010 Audi A3 TDI, 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, and the 2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid.

Not everyone is impressed with the accolade, which is in its eighth year.

Michael Vaughn wrote in The Globe and Mail earlier this month that, “the five Green Car finalists … are all yawners. There are glaring omissions from the list and the ones that did make it all feature worthwhile but unexciting technology that we have seen before.”

But Ford’s Mondragon called it “a great testament for Ford,” and the award adds to some of the press attention that the car, which went on sale this fall, has already gotten. By several accounts, the 2013 Fusion is a very important model for the automaker, which is entering the popular (and crowded) midsize sedan market. Ford is betting that the Fusion, which it has billed as “the most fuel-efficient sedan in America,” will help it dominate that market.

(Related Photos: “Eleven Electric Cars Charge Ahead, Amid Obstacles“)

The renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) gives wind power producers an income tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour. Without it, wind energy can be too expensive to produce, so most new wind projects have been put on hold until companies know whether the PTC — which is set to expire at the end of the year — will be extended.

“We think we have the bipartisan support to get this done,” said Ellen Carey, spokesperson for the American Wind Energy Association. “We need to prevent the loss of 37,000 jobs, and an immediate one-year extension will do that.”

Carey said the industry has already seen layoffs in its manufacturing sector, which had been growing in the U.S. Sixty percent of a wind turbine’s value is now produced in the U.S., up from 25 percent in 2005, according to AWEA.

The industry fared well in last week’s election.

A poll released on Friday showed that energy was an important factor to voters in key swing states including Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia, and played significant a role in their presidential choice.

The poll from the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Advanced Energy Economy Ohio Institute found that voters want to see cleaner energy encouraged in their states. Looking to the future, they’re significantly more supportive of candidates who push for shifting to cleaner energy sources (Iowa: 80 percent, Colorado: 75 percent, Virginia: 72 percent, Ohio: 70 percent). Majorities in all four states support continued government investment in clean energy (Iowa: 77 percent, Virginia: 76 percent, Ohio: 75 percent, Colorado: 72 percent) and requirements for utilities to increase use of renewables.

“It is long past time to end the vilification of an industry that is creating jobs, attracting private investment, and contributing to our economic recovery,” said Dennis McGinn, president and CEO of ACORE, in a statement. “Clean energy is a business, not a political football, and it should be treated as a business.”

In August, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke out against renewing the PTC while he was campaigning in Iowa — a state that has thousands of jobs at stake in the wind industry, and has had bipartisan support for its renewal. The move cost him some support in Iowa, and gave Obama ammunition in his battle for the state, which the president won by about five percentage points.

“There were two very clearly different positions on clean energy and support for clean energy” during the election, said Judy Albert, executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a network of business leaders and an affiliate of the Natural Resources Defense Council. And while Albert said she knows voters didn’t go to the polls with clean energy as their top issue, the re-election of Obama shows they were thinking that “clean energy is important to me,” she said.

Albert said she feels more confident that the PTC may be extended now that the election is over. “It may free some Republicans to support the PTC,” she said. Those lawmakers may have felt pressured to follow in line with the party’s presidential candidate during the election.

But they will have to act fast — and damage has already been done.

“There’s wreckage on the tracks,” Albert said. “There are so many projects that have been put on hold because they didn’t know if the extension would go through, it’s going to take a while to gear the things back up again” if it does. A report issued last week by E2 found that there were zero wind industry manufacturing job announcements in the third quarter, compared with eight announcements in the first and second quarters of the year.

The PTC has been allowed to expire in the past, and in the years that followed, wind installations dropped between 73 and 93 percent, according to AWEA.

The lame-duck Congress, which returned to Washington on Tuesday, is more focused on the fiscal cliff the country faces at the end of the year. But the PTC may end up as a one-year extension along with several other tax credits in fiscal cliff legislation. That would help, but only short-term — the industry would be in the same position a year from now.

Still, the temporary fix would give the subsidy to any projects where construction has started by the end of 2013.

“Every day that Congress delays action means more layoffs and job losses for American workers,” Sierra Club President Michael Brune said in a statement. “The wind industry doesn’t just support clean energy that keeps our air free of pollution, it also feeds the families of 75,000 workers.”

Critics, such as the American Energy Alliance, argue that the credit gives “training wheels” to an industry that doesn’t need them, reported The Hill. The AEA, along with other conservative groups and lawmakers, have tried to tie the 20-year-old incentive to failed renewable energy companies like the bankrupt Solyndra, and say the government can’t afford to give handouts while the country is in an economic crisis, reported Politico.

“We’ve always said we won’t need the tax credit forever,” AWEA’s Carey said. “Right now we’ve got to do the job of extending it to prevent job loss and let us create new manufacturing.”

A bipartisan group including Iowa’s Republican Gov. Terry Branstad and Sen. Chuck Grassley, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas held an event on Capitol Hill Tuesday to push for an extension of the PTC along with Democratic governors John Hickenlooper of Colorado and John Kitzhaber of Oregon.

“Thousands of jobs in the wind industry have already been impacted by the credit’s looming expiration and thousands more are at risk,” the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, representing the governors of 28 states, wrote to Congressional leadership. “We urge you to take swift action to extend the PTC before the end of this congressional session.”

“What I’m seeing in this state alone, [is that] we are having a massive investment this year in wind energy — about $3 billion in new wind investment, nearly 1,400 megawatts,” Kansas Gov. Brownback said by phone at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Everybody wants to deal with the financial problems we have as a country,” he said. “The key to ending our fiscal problems is to grow the economy, and this helps grow the economy.”

And with the arrival of the holiday season, there aren’t many working weeks left for Congress this year. The lawmakers said they were waiting to see where the fiscal cliff talks between House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama lead.

The problem has been worst so far in New Jersey, but some residents of New York and Connecticut have had to wait in lines for hours, too.

Analysts stress that there’s not a gas shortage or crisis. Instead, the problems they see are that few gas stations have power (which is necessary to pump gas), and residents are panicking and sitting in the lines even when they don’t really need gas because they don’t want to risk being left without it, reported the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

“Unfortunately, that’s very typical behavior after a hurricane,” Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, a website that tracks gasoline trends, told the paper. “Even if they know their car is going to stay parked, they still panic and go and fill up the tank. It exacerbates the problem.”

Laskoski said that adds to price hikes and makes it take longer for things to return to normal.

Some residents have been sitting in lines for hours to fill either their cars or containers they brought to fill for their generators, only to find out that the station had run out of gas by they time they got to the pump. Many drivers searched for hours to find a gas station that had power and still had gas, then sat in line for two hours, ABC News reported.

On Thursday, Fox News reported that state troopers were deployed to maintain order  as customers’ tempers flared at stations along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, where lines have spilled out onto the highways. Police were also called to settle several disputes about cutting in line in New Jersey towns on Wednesday.

Jackie Wong, a resident of Queens, N.Y., had no luck trying to stop for gas on her way to work on Thursday morning — and had a tough commute on top of it, facing a long backup on the Long Island Expressway.

“My local gas station in Queens was already out of gas,” Wong said. “I have not witnessed any lines at gas stations, but colleagues tell me they saw lines wrapped around the block, and that the police had to be called to attempt to keep the peace.” Wong said she now plans to take a complicated bus route to work, “until the situation gets better.”

Experts say the problem is more about resources at this point. The stations that have gas don’t have electricity, and the stations that have electricity are running out of gas.

While all of the nine refineries located in the region were affected by the “superstorm,” most were operating by late Wednesday, and the largest by capacity, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, was in excellent condition, CBS News reported. Two of the refineries were still not operating.

“Right now, we don’t have a gasoline crisis or an oil crisis or a diesel crisis. We have an electricity crisis,” Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gas prices nationwide, told the Star-Ledger. “There are few stations open, because you need to have electricity to pump gas.”

That lack of electricity and the difficulty tankers are facing with running into road barricades could lead to less supply in the coming days. Nearly half of all stations in New York City and New Jersey have been shut down because they don’t have power or gas, Fox reported.

“Hopefully the region’s fuel supply will bounce back quickly but for now, demand exceeds supply. And when that occurs, there’s only one direction for retail prices to go,” Laskoski of GasBuddy wrote in a blog post. “If you’re in the northeast, please don’t exacerbate the problem. No need to fill up a car that will remain parked at home.”

The country — which is home to the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, one of the world’s largest oil companies — topped the International Index of Energy Security Risk ranking, released Monday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.

“They are a very resource-rich country with very low energy use per person,” said Karen Harbert, president of the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, during a press conference. But she cautioned that the country may not retain its top ranking for long — oil production there is dropping and transportation use “is going way up.”

The index analyzes 28 measures of energy security, including fossil fuel imports, energy expenditures, efficiency, transportation, power generation, and carbon dioxide emissions. The first edition looked at data from 1980 through 2010.

Rounding out the top five countries in the index were the United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand, and Denmark.

The United States came in at No. 7, and has shown improvement in recent years because of its growing shale oil production in North Dakota, shale gas production in Texas and Pennsylvania, and lower energy costs, the group said. Those factors are expected to continue to improve the country’s energy security.

The report also found that if greater access is allowed to oil resources on federal lands both onshore and offshore, U.S. oil import risks could be substantially reduced.

Down at the bottom of the list was Ukraine, which scored poorly all across the range of energy security measures. Joining it in the bottom five were Brazil, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Thailand.

“Those [countries] that score poorly are reliant on others for energy supplies, leaving them vulnerable to disruptions, and do not use energy efficiently,” said Steve Eule, a vice president at the Energy Institute, in a statement. “As a whole, we’ve seen the risk scores for most of the large energy users worsen over the past decade after a long period of improvement, which is cause for concern.”

Going forward, the report will be issued annually so that trends in energy security risks and the results of policy changes can be more easily spotted. The group is closely watching Japan, for example, which imports almost all of its fuels and has one of the highest energy security risk scores of any of the developed nations in the large energy users group. The country’s move away from nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster “will pose significant energy security challenges going forward,” the report said.

The report also found that for many large emerging economies, including China and India, rapid economic growth in the last decade increased energy demand and worsened their underlying energy security risks. The group expects the risk scores for those countries to get worse before they get better.

The 2012 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, which is compiled by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, placed California in the No. 2 slot. California had ranked No. 1 in the first four scorecards from the ACEEE before being toppled by Massachusetts last year.

The top ten also includes New York, Oregon, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, Maryland and Minnesota — the same ten states that made up the top tier in 2011, as well.

The ACEEE measures six primary policy areas thattypically pursue energy efficiency, including utilities, transportation, building codes, heat and power policies, government-led energy-efficiency initiatives, and appliance standards

Massachusetts continues to benefit from the effects of its Green Communities Act of 2008, which encouraged bigger investments in energy efficient programs by requiring utilities to save a growing percentage of energy each yearwith efficiency measures.

“We are proud to have maintained the number one spot in the nation because of our continued focus on innovation and investments in energy efficiency,” said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, in a statement. “Our Green Communities Act is cutting our dependence on imported energy sources, creating jobs, and leading the way to a more sustainable energy future for Massachusetts.”

The states that saw the most improvement last year were Oklahoma, Montana, and South Carolina — all of which gave their budgets for electric energy efficiency programs a boost in 2011, and saved even more energy from programs they kicked off in 2010 and 2009.

The scorecard also found that annual savings from customer-funded energy efficiency programs in 2010 were roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity the entire state of Wyoming uses each year — a 40 percent increase over a year earlier.

There were 21 states that fell in the rankings, with Maine dropping the furthest, by 13 places, and Nevada by nine. The ACEEE said that was due both to changes in its scoring methodology, and relatively faster progress by competing states.

The ten least efficient states were Nebraska, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Mississippi, which ranked last.North Dakota was ranked last in 2011. The report said small improvements in energy efficiency have a big impact on a state’s rankings, so those that don’t ramp up their efforts will quickly fall behind.

The ACEEE said that even top-ranked states like Massachusetts should continue to make improvements, as no state achieved a perfect score. Among the group’s recommendations were adopting and adequately funding an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, or energy savings target, and putting in place tougher tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks, as several of the most energy-efficient states have done.

Built by the U.S. government, the $2.5 million Net Zero Residential Test Facility is really an elaborate laboratory, reports Reuters. The house, which was unveiled last week, sits on the grounds of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

(Related Pictures: “Seven Supergreen Government Buildings“)

The “Nisters,” an imaginary family including two working parents, and children ages 8 and 14, are controlled by researchers camped out in a command center in the home’s detached garage. From there, scientists can use sensors and computer programs to make the residents take a shower, cook dinner, do the laundry, turn the television and computer on and off, and other everyday tasks families do that use energy.

Solar panels line the roof to generate electricity and heat water, and scales are used to gauge water use. The system uses weight to determine who’s taking a shower and how much hot water they would likely use. (The teenager, for example, might take a much longer shower than other family members.)

The 2-story, 4-bedroom, 3-bath house was funded by federal stimulus money made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which prioritized green construction.

The project will attempt to show the public that a house that doesn’t need to look space-aged to operate on net zero energy. It will also be a testing ground for new energy-efficient technologies and environmentally friendly design standards.

“The goal of the facility is to demonstrate that over the course of a year, a home similar in size and aesthetics with all the features a family and surrounding communities would want, can achieve net zero,” said Hunter Fanney, chief of NIST’s Building Environment Lab, in a video about the project. “That is, over the course of a year, you’d have zero energy building, yet enjoy all the amenities and size of a home typical of the surrounding community.”

The home, which uses commercially available technologies, has walls and roofing with more than twice the amount of insulation found in typical homes, and geothermal heating and cooling that uses the temperature of the ground to keep the temperature inside the house comfortable.

(Related Pictures: “In Search of Green Air Conditioning“)

During its first year in operation, no humans will be allowed into the house so scientists can monitor how it performs without interference. But it will look occupied, with the lights turning on and off at pre-determined times, appliances and hot water running. The researchers have even added devices to give off heat and humidity like a person would.

While the house will use energy from the grid on days when it can’t generate enough energy of its own, officials say it will make up for that energy over the course of the year so that it has a net-zero result.

With its hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances in addition to its amazing energy efficiency, Fanney of NIST says he’d feel right at home living in this laboratory. “I’d love to live in this house,” he told CNN.

(Related Quiz: “What You Don’t Know About Electricity“)

The NFL’s biggest stadium, which is also home to the New York Jets, is debuting a high-profile push toward renewable energy with a ring featuring 1,350 solar panels, which can turn blue or green, depending on which team is playing.

“I think it’s really going to emerge as sort of an iconic physical element” for the stadium, said David Crane, chief executive officer of NRG Energy, which designed the ring. “I actually saw it the first time in person on a Continental Airlines jet, from seat 42A. It’s very, very impressive — it’s actually more impressive from the outside of the stadium,” he said.

Together, the panels generate 25 times the power needed to run the LED lights that come to life at night. The excess power is used to service the rest of the stadium. In all, the solar power system generates 350,000 kilowatt hours — enough to meet approximately 10 percent of the stadium’s power needs on game days.

And it’s not NRG’s only new renewable energy installation this season.

Farther north, at the home of the Giants’ Super Bowl rivals, the New England Patriots, construction is still under way on a solar canopy and set of rooftop panels at Patriot Place, an outdoor shopping and dining center that’s adjacent to Gillette Stadium. The canopy, which also offers cover for patrons, and the installation that now sits atop a Sleepy’s Mattress store, add up to 3,000 solar panels. The combination is expected to generate 1.1 million kilowatt hours a year — about 60 percent of Patriot Place’s electricity usage.

Although NRG debuted a stadium solar project last year — an array 8,000 of panels in the parking area at the Redskins’ FedEx Field in Maryland — this year’s projects have taken on a higher profile because they’re at the homes of the teams who faced off in the last Super Bowl.

Other stadiums have gotten in on the renewable energy act, too: the Seattle Seahawks installed a 2.5-acre solar array at CenturyLink Field last year; and the Philadelphia Eagles, who are now working with NRG, are working to make Lincoln Financial Field “the greenest facility in the National Football League,” owner Jeffrey Lurie recently said.

(Related: “Pictures: Kickoff Time for Green Stadiums“)

Of course, the companies affiliated with these efforts don’t always make it to the end zone. The Seahawks’ array was installed by the now-bankrupt Solyndra, and part of the Eagles’ green efforts suffered a hiccup when the vendor for planned rooftop wind turbines at Lincoln Financial Field went under as well. Neither team was derailed by the industry snafus, but they are a reminder of the risks inherent in betting on a new energy strategy.

NRG’s projects are part of its “icon strategy,” where the company looked for well-known structures in the United States that were “more horizontal construction — and it didn’t take us long to get to the NFL stadiums,” said Crane. “They’re big, they’re cool, they’re usually surrounded by big parking lots,” which lend themselves to solar installations.

(Related: “Helix Collapse Fails to Crush Hopes for Vertical Wind Turbines“)

Crane declined to reveal specific price tags for the projects, but said they tend to run in the “several million” dollar range.

And how long does it take for a stadium to recover those costs with energy savings?

“In terms of the return on the investment, we’re used to getting a return over a fairly long term in our industry,” Crane said. “Any investment we do, we calculate over a 20 year term.”

But he says solar isn’t as expensive as it once was.

“The price of solar panels has dropped precipitously,” said Crane. Most of the costs at the stadiums are associated with their highly stylized looks and the installation work that involves. “You can’t do computer-driven LED lighting and achieve the same price point as you can for lining up solar panels in desert.” (Which is what many of the company’s lower-profile installations involve.)

“On one level, we know that people who are going to football games are going to football games to look at Tom Brady, they’re not going to look at our panels on the roof,” Crane laughed. Still, the hope is that “fans will look at them and say, ‘my team is doing the right thing.’ It’s really about raising awareness with the fan base.”

Crane hopes to continue on to a second phase at each of stadiums, possibly including solar panels in MetLife’s vast parking lot, and a wind turbine is under consideration at Gillette.

He’s also keen to install more of the company’s electric vehicle charging stations at stadiums, which was part of the FedEx Field project and a priority for NRG.

And don’t be surprised if next season brings more NFL teams onto the renewable energy playing field.

“The NFL’s a very competitive place — and we’d like to be associated with some one-upmanship,” Crane said.