The cities of Austin and San Antonio are two of only 25 communities nationwide and the only cities in Texas in line for a total of $20 million in federal stimulus funds – $10 million each – to accelerate energy efficiency building retrofits. The funds are part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up Initiative. It goes to communities, governments, private sector companies and nonprofits to work on innovative programs that lead to retrofits in communities and eventually the entire state.
Austin, Texas ($10 Million): The Austin Climate Protection Retrofit Program will accelerate energy and water efficiency and integrated renewable energy improvements in private and commercial properties in the City of Austin and Austin Energy’s service territory. The project will focus on alternative financing options for property owners, including new financing mechanisms, interest rate buy downs, and on-bill repayment.
San Antonio, Texas ($10 Million): The San Antonio Green Retrofit Initiative will provide a unified single-point-of-service energy efficiency delivery program targeting residential, commercial, institutional, industrial, and public buildings. Systematic retrofits will include comprehensive audits, identification of appropriate technology changes, and modification of energy systems. San Antonio’s approach includes a door-to-door outreach campaign tailored to Spanish-speaking households, as well as an online one-stop center for retrofit information.
In addition to the $452 million Recovery Act investment, all selected projects will leverage an estimated $2.8 billion from other sources over the next 3 years to retrofit hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the country. Overall, the program funding was eight times oversubscribed, with more than $3.5 billion in applications received for the just over $450 million in Recovery Act funds available, indicating significant demand for investment in energy-saving and job-creating projects like these nationwide.
In implementing these projects, grantees will deliver verified energy savings and incorporate sustainable business models, to ensure that buildings will continue to be retrofitted after Recovery Act funds are spent. The Department will use the lessons learned from these pilot programs to develop best-practice guides to comprehensive retrofit programs that can be adopted and implemented by other communities across the country.
