U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced a new $450 million program designed to catalyze a nationwide energy upgrade that experts estimate could save $100 million annually in utility bills for households and businesses. The Recovery Act’s “Retrofit Ramp-Up” program will pioneer innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in a variety of communities. Much like past roll-outs for cable TV or the Internet, the Department of Energy (DOE) intends to create models that, when undertaken nationally, will save consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills and make the huge savings of energy efficiency available to everyone.
“Energy efficiency isn’t just low-hanging fruit; it’s fruit lying on the ground. We have the tools to reduce energy use at home and at work and to provide huge savings to families and businesses on their energy bills. But use of these technologies has been far too limited because we lack the simple and effective ways for people to access them,” said Chu.
“The ‘Retrofit Ramp-Up’ program will support large-scale models that can open new energy efficiency opportunities to whole neighborhoods, towns, and, eventually, entire states,” continued Chu. “The Recovery Act will allow innovative communities to demonstrate a variety of sustainable business models that can be replicated across the country.”
The Request for Information (RFI) being issued today is for competitively selected local energy efficiency projects. This competitive portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program will target community-scale retrofit projects that make significant, long-term impacts on energy use and can serve as national role models for grassroots energy efficiency efforts. The DOE is seeking public comment on this newly funded program under the Recovery Act. Public comment ends on Sept. 28, 2009.