Austin to Receive $10 Million to Expand Efficiency Programs

May 1, 2010 12:00 PM

The city of Austin, Texas, U.S., has been awarded $10 million in federal stimulus funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and implement innovative financing opportunities to allow residential and commercial property owners to make energy-efficiency improvements and install renewable-energy systems, such as rooftop solar.

The goal of the DOE Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative is to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses over the first three years, reducing energy costs for participants and creating thousands of jobs nationwide.

Last year, the Texas legislature passed a law that allows municipalities to underwrite or secure funding for on-site energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects. The concept is that property owners would repay loans for clean energy investments over the life of the energy measures, possibly in conjunction with their property tax, utility or other bills. Several states and counties across the country are implementing such programs. The approach differs depending on state and local laws.

Austin Energy has built one of the nation's most comprehensive energy-efficiency programs. The utility provides rebates to residential and commercial customers for energy-efficiency improvements. Each year about 2500 customers make efficiency improvements using the program.

“The goal is to establish a system where customers can pay for efficiency improvements and renewable-energy systems entirely through the savings generated by the improvements,” said Karl Rábago, Austin Energy vice president for Distributed Energy Services. “This expansion in participation will help accelerate the emergence of markets less and less dependent on government subsidies.”

Austin Energy estimates that implementation of the new program could result in efficiency improvements and potential solar installations for several thousand residential and commercial properties over the first three years of the program. The improvements would result in both energy savings and pollution reductions.

For more information, visit www.austinenergy.com.

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