Recovery Through Retrofit Program Lifts Green Building Industry

 

One of the main goals of this initiative is to simplify and incentive the process for Americans to implement green building retrofits for major cost-savings, while reducing carbon emissions for environmental benefits. In general, existing techniques in energy efficiency retrofitting have the potential to reduce energy usage by up to 40 percent per home and eliminate aggregate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by up to 160 million metric tons annually. The report stated that 20 percent of all annual U.S. carbon emissions are attributed to the nation’s 130 million homes. Moreover, retrofitting existing homes also has the potential to cut home energy bills by $21 billion each year. The program is aiming to lessen the barriers in financing, communications, and the licensing of workers in the industry.

Of course, the recession has had a negative impact on the green building and renewable energy industries, in general. Homeowners have been less apt to undergo expensive energy-efficient upgrades, as the country cuts back on consumer spending while the housing market only slowly recovers. As home values have declined and many remain on the market much longer than usual, many people are concerned they will be unable to recover the capital costs of renovations such solar panel installations. Thus, more attractive finance offers are necessary to capitalize on the retrofit opportunity, which provides a plethora of long-term benefits for homeowners and the economy as a whole. As the housing market, and namely the fallout from the foreclosure fiasco, was a major contributor to causing the recession, which officially started in December 2007, it is possible that this program aimed at this very same market will be instrumental in aiding in the recovery of the U.S. economy. Also, it will allow homeowners to build equity faster in their homes, which will ultimately improve consumer spending, which fuels the overall economy.

The recommendations and measures in the Recovery Through Retrofit Report were formulated to overcome the barriers for green building investments and to apply Recovery Act funding to help ensure that the energy efficiency market will thrive well beyond the three to five year period of stimulus funding, which is part of the reason the legislation is not just called the Recovery Act but specifically the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

 

Three of the key recommendations in the Recovery Through Retrofit Report include:

 

1. Provide American homeowners with straightforward and reliable home energy retrofit information: Consumers need consistent, accessible, and trustworthy information that provides a reliable benchmark of energy efficiency and accurate estimates of the costs and benefits of home energy retrofits.

 

2. Reduce high upfront costs, making energy retrofits more accessible: Access to retrofit financing should be more transparent, more accessible, repayable over a longer time period, and more consumer-friendly. 

 

3. Establish national workforce certifications and training standards: A uniform set of national standards to qualify energy efficiency and retrofit workers and industry training providers will establish the foundation of consumer confidence that work will be completed correctly and produce the expected energy savings and benefits.

The DOE is now accepting applications for a new $390 million "Retrofit Ramp-Up" stimulus program that will deploy innovative approaches to energy efficiency building retrofits. When applied on a national scale, the program could save billions of dollars annually in utility bills for households and businesses and create thousands of green jobs across the country. In addition, the DOE recently announced $64 million in energy efficiency funding for cities, counties, and Indian tribes. Local elected officials need to be aware and act on these programs not to lose out on the opportunity, since lower utility costs for government buildings are another way to reduce state budget deficits.

 

As part of the overall retrofit initiative, the DOE will accept state proposals to use State Energy Grant or Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant funds for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) pilot projects. This is a unique financing approach that will allow communities to offer deals to homeowners for the installation of renewable energy systems and green retrofits to buildings that can be rolled into property tax bills for consideration of other future monetary options such as mortgages.  In addition, the reduction in energy demand and higher percentage of residential green energy would put slightly less pressure on utilities to build more clean energy power plants for aggressive, tightening restrictions on carbon emissions.

 

A collaborative group involving the coordinators of this overall Retrofit report will submit a detailed implementation plan to the Vice President in the next 30 days. Ultimately, it is hoped that an easily recognizable coding system, similar to LEED ratings, will be developed that energy auditors, retrofitters, lenders, realtors, and consumers can utilize for comparing and contrasting home energy performance.

 

This program, once implemented, should generate a significant boost to the distributed, roof-top solar panel segment of the photovoltaic market, leading to increased demand and alleviating the current oversupply, which is plaguing the industry. The announcement of the “Recovery Through Retrofit” initiative comes during the week that the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour comes to Arizona, as it strives to reach all 50 states with numerous viewings of noteworthy solar-powered homes and other establishments nationwide.

 

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