The Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a $450-million energy upgrade program that could save businesses and households $100 million annually in utility bills.
Announced by U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, the Recovery Act's "Retrofit Ramp-Up" program is expected to pioneer innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses nationwide.
"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, said Energy Secretary Chu, in a press release." The Recovery Act will allow innovative communities to demonstrate a variety of sustainable business models that can be replicated across the country."
The program also released a Request for Information (RFI) 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 and long-term impacts on energy use and can serve as national role models for grassroots energy efficiency efforts, according to the DOE.
DOE is seeking public comment on this newly funded program under the Recovery Act. Public comment ends on Sept. 28, 2009.
DOE also is accepting feedback on both the EECBG program for up to $390 million for neighborhood-scale building retrofits, and up to $64 million for local governments that were not eligible to receive the formula grants announced earlier this year.
