Happy Monday everyone. The beginning of the final week of the month brings us great solar energy news from the south, as the University of Central Florida (UCF) has announced the completion of a new energy research facility. UCF has added an energy efficiency testing lab to its Florida Solar Energy Center — a 20-acre complex that already holds a solar research library, a photovoltaic (PV) materials lab and a solar thermal testing lab.

Its newest facility — made possible by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) four-year research grant — will focus on finding energy-efficient improvements for new and existing Florida homes. It features two homes, side-by-side, that the University’s researchers will use to try to figure out where the best improvements can be made.

Why the need for such a lab? According to Solar Novus, over 60 percent of the homes in Florida were built before 1975. So, as you can imagine, most of these homes are in serious need of some energy efficiency upgrades.

If there’s any place in the Sunshine State fit to find those measures, it’s UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center, which has over 40 patents licensed to industry and a whole host of awards in the alternative energy sector. In 1996, the center was already recognized for its excellence in architecture by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects. It also won the Energy Star for Homes Outstanding Achievement Award from 2003-2005. It’s unknown how much money the DOE grant is worth. But  U.S. Department of Energy Director of Residential Building Programs David Lee has high hopes for the University’s research:

“As we address greenhouse gas emissions, we have to look at retrofitting existing homes. This facility will be instrumental in researching the impacts of home energy efficiency improvements in hot climates.”

If the research goes as well as expected, it could lead to an overall reduction in residential energy use by 30 to 50 percent throughout Florida.