The dollars will be leveraged with private investment to fund large-scale energy efficiency work in neighborhoods and commercial districts in the Boulder, Denver and Garfield County regions.

Reported by Staff

Colorado is one of several states selected for a $25 million Recovery Act grant to “ramp up” retrofits of homes and businesses with energy efficiency improvements. The grant award, announced by the U.S. Department of Energy April 21, will help launch a retrofit program to create jobs and investment in Colorado through large-scale energy efficiency work in neighborhoods and commercial districts in the Denver, Boulder and Garfield County regions.

The dollars will be leveraged with private investment and lead to efficiency improvements in tens of thousands of buildings, cut tens of millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and help develop green training opportunities and thousands of jobs.

The Governor’s Energy Office collaborated with Boulder County, the city of Boulder, the city and County of Denver, Garfield County and Xcel Energy to develop an approach for the competitive grant and the GEO was the lead agency in preparing the grant application.

“Homes, commercial structures and other buildings consume significant amounts of energy,” Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said. “One of the most effective ways to save energy is to retrofit existing buildings to make them more efficient. It saves money. It saves energy and it just makes good common sense as we transform to a clean energy future and continue to advance Colorado’s successful New Energy Economy.”

Delivery of retrofits in the Boulder, Denver and Garfield County regions will be coordinated through a variety of programs, including the “Two Techs and a Truck” approach, which provides on-site outreach, audit and implementation services to businesses and residential homeowners and tenants, including efficiency testing and systems installation.

GEO deputy director Seth Portner noted that firmly established energy efficiency leadership in Colorado and the partnering communities played an important role in winning the grant. “The (communities) are running a lot of really interesting programs with unique approaches to getting into neighborhoods and helping people bring energy efficiency into their homes,” he said.

The retrofit program will build on three basic principles of the GEO’s Recharge Colorado program: Access to Information, Access to Services and Access to Finance. All of that is available through the GEO’s new Rechargecolorado.com website, where consumers statewide can – in a single, one-stop clearinghouse - find incentives, service providers and information about how to save money and energy. The interactive components of the new rechargecolorado.com site will also serve to guide residents toward the programs to be funded through the retrofit grant.

The Retrofit Ramp-Up projects, which are part of the overall $80 billion Recovery Act investment in clean energy and energy efficiency, complement the Obama Administration’s ‘Recovery through Retrofit’ initiative, which lays the groundwork for a self-sustaining and robust home energy efficiency industry. The awards are the competitive portion of DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, which was funded for the first time under the Recovery Act to help state, local, and tribal communities make strategic investments in improving energy efficiency, reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions.

In all, the DOE distributed $452 million in retrofit ramp-up grants to communities nationwide.