Energy.gov

Naperville, Illinois is improving their long-term electricity distribution through the implementation of the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative (NSGI) -- to the tune of $3million in savings over a 15-year period.

St. Johns County, Florida is tackling its traffic-timing problem with a little help from an Energy Department Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grant. The county will use the grant to improve traffic flow by re-synchronizing signals at five major road segments. In total, 23 traffic signals will be retimed and synchronized, resulting in lower fuel consumption, shorter travel times, increased travel speed, less stopping and less engine idling.

It is back to school time for the 513 students at Ring Factory Elementary School in Harford County, Md. And there's something new and cool -- beyond clothes and backpacks -- for these kids. The latest addition is the school's new ENERGY STAR-rated "cool" roof, funded in part through the Recovery Act.

The parking lot to the county courthouse and nursing home facility in Strafford County, New Hampshire needed new lights. And thanks to an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the Energy Department, Strafford got what it needed and more.

Officials of PEEP, the Pinellas Energy Efficiency Project, will start handing out energy kits—filled with CFLs, weather stripping, low-flow shower heads and window insulators—over the next few months to residents who attend special classes. It's pretty straightforward: come to one of the classes, learn how to cut energy use and save money — and leave with the materials to make that happen.

Phase III Xlerator awards go out to 33 small businesses in 16 states to make clean energy technology a commercial reality.

For more than five years, a large grocery store stood abandoned, leaving a disheartening void at one of the busiest intersections in Elkin, N.C. Now it marks the site of the Elkin Center -- a new energy-efficient space that will host trainings for students and business professionals alike.

The Parks and Recreation Department of North Lauderdale, Fla., is saving money and reducing its carbon footprint, thanks to the recent addition of two energy efficient “Smart Cars” to the city’s fleet.

Wallie Shaw remembers where he got the idea to do a hands-on solar panel project for his Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) students, a school-to-work transition program focused on helping at-risk youth graduate from high school.