Renewed Energy

This winter has taken a toll on the boilers that keep the homes in our condo association warm.  In fact, our mechanical guy said there is a good chance that these boilers (original to the buildings) wouldn't make it through another winter. Awesome! I see many a warm winter ahead....not.

Unless....D.C. manages to get the $35 million revolving federal grant that Mayor Fenty applied for in December 2009. 

"The District submitted an application to the federal Department of Energy's Community Block Grant Retrofit Ramp-up Program, which is distributing $490 million in competitive grants to states and muncipalities to encourage homeowners and commercial property owners to make improvements such as replacing windows, upgrading heating and cooling systems and installing solar panels in order to cut annual energy costs by at least 25 pecent.

Led by the Department of the Environment and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the District plans to establish a revolving fund where property owners could borrow money to make improvements and repay the loans via an annual assessment on their property tax bills.  The annual energy cost savings is expected to be far greater than the additional tax assessment and the assessment is tied to the property so that if the building is sold, the new property owner would assume the cost of repaying the loan.

A Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bond program, will ensure sustainable funding for this initiative in coming years.  The legislation would allow the District to issue a series of conduit bonds up to $250 million.  The federal funds would initially seed the fund and future bond sales would be backed by future tax collections.

The average age of a building in the District is about 72 years old, or about 30 years older than the national average.  Given the age of the city's building stock, officials see a greater need for energy efficiency retrofits and the program managers expect the property owners could collectively save about $10 million in utility costs during the program's first three years.

Beyond energy savings, the program is also expected to create about 1,400 jobs per year in fields including construction, weatherization, energy auditing and building maintenance services.

Several states and municipalities, including Maryland and Virginia, have already approved legislation to create similar PACE programs."