Making Energy Efficiency Easier

Across the nation, advocates and regulators are seeking ways to avoid the significant electricity rate increases that will be required by upcoming major investments in new power plants and transmission lines.   All the involved parties are encouraging investments in energy efficiency.

The push is on in Oregon:  from venture capitalists (who are lobbying for legislation to pay them at renewable energy-like rates), to Oregon’s investor owned electric utilities (who have permission to spend more than $3 M on community outreach breakfasts and dinners),  to non-profits like Clean Energy Works of Oregon and the Energy Trust (who offer incentives and a network of trade allys to weatherize and provide energy efficient space and water heating).    The effort is worth it;  the utility funded energy efficiency programs of the Energy Trust of Oregon are 3-5 times more cost effective (for ratepayers) than building new pipelines, transmission lines or power plants.

Accelerating Energy Efficiency Investments is the focus of the Energy Action team for 2010 and 2011.

Our premise is that if Corvallis residents have information, access to capital, and a way to have energy efficiency investments become a priority, they will act. To make action a priority and to streamline information gathering, the Energy Action Team, the Corvallis Environmental Center, and the City of Corvallis have joined forces in creating the volunteer Energy Advocate Program.

Corvallis residents can sign up for an “energy adviser”,  a volunteer trained to provide residents with information on how to decide which energy efficiency upgrades make sense for their home and how to calculate how quickly these upgrades can pay for themselves.   Energy Advocates share information about the relative costs and cost effectiveness of energy efficiency upgrades and explain the monetary incentives and tax credits available to Corvallis residents.  To learn more about this program: http://energizecorvallis.org/index/our-programs/energy-advocates/.

Energy Advocates can also assist residents in securing low interest loans (5 year, no fee, no down payment loans) of up to $10,000, provided by a Revolving Loan Fund established through the City of Corvallis’s Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant.    With this kind of financing and incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon (for Pacific Power and Northwest Natural Customers), some upgrades can pay for themselves in as little as three years!

Finally, the Corvallis Environmental Center is managing a local incentive program that pays up to an additional $500 for weatherization upgrades, the most cost-effective and long lasting of energy efficiency investments.   This program is called the Corvallis Weatherization Incentive Program (CWIP).  Residents can work directly with the Corvallis Environmental Center or work with an Energy Advocate to secure these additional incentives.   To learn more about CWIP:  http://corvallisenvironmental.wordpress.com/energy-efficiency.

 

Energy: Vision

The Vision of the Energy Action Team is that by 2020, Corvallis has achieved energy security and net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy: Goals

1. By 2020, Corvallis will reduce per capita consumption of energy in buildings by 50% using energy conservation. Remaining energy for buildings will be supplied using
renewable energy.

2. By 2025, Corvallis will be a net energy producer with 100% of all energy produced being renewable energy.

3. By 2020, Corvallis will eliminate its net per capita greenhouse gas emissions from energy use and production.

Energy: Current Projects

1.        Energy Efficiency Assistance:  by May 2011, we will have trained almost 50 volunteers to advise Corvallis residents on cost effective energy efficiency upgrades and the incentives and tax credits that make these upgrades even more affordable.
 
2.       Energy Efficiency Assistance:   A Revolving Loan Fund has been established, to provide low interest, energy efficiency loans of up to $10,000.  Thanks go to the City of Corvallis and to Federal Stimulus Funding.
 
3.       Neighborhood Outreach:  By 2013, the Corvallis Community Energy Project will have reached 10 Corvallis neighborhoods and established Neighborhood Energy Leads in each of these neighborhoods.   In 2010 we worked with the Jobs Addition neighborhood near Corvallis High School.