Program tackles locals’ energy bills

After an energy audit found that Ingrid Feggans’ house on Brown Street was leaking heat last winter, she had her home retrofitted with such energy efficient upgrades as an on-demand water heater in her pantry and new seals for every duct, door and window.

“Now we’re not losing heat and we’re saving money,” Feggans said.

Next winter, she said, Feggans expects to save a substantial sum of cash. Home weatherization saves the average homeowner some $350 per year by slashing heating bills by 32 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. “I’m really excited about next winter,” she said.

Under a new program being developed by Charlottesville and Albemarle County, many more homeowners can expect a bit of help to make their homes more energy efficient.

The Local Energy Alliance Program will coordinate energy efficiency initiatives in the localities and will oversee a revolving loan program that will help homeowners purchase weatherization upgrades, as well as such renewable energy technology as passive solar water heaters.

The initiative, which will launch in January, aims to make 500 homes more energy efficient in 2010 and another 1,500 homes in 2011. Overall, its goal is to make between one-third and one-half of all buildings in Charlottesville and Albemarle between 20 percent and 40 percent more energy efficient within five to seven years.

“The goal of this program is nothing less than deep market penetration,” said Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris. “The pace and schedule of these goals is immense.”

The revolving loan fund was originally conceived by Charlottesville’s City Council. Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, carried a bill authorizing the city to move forward with the idea during the General Assembly session earlier this year. After he introduced the legislation, many other localities expressed interest and it was soon expanded to allow any locality in Virginia to create a similar program to lend money to homeowners or businesses for clean energy improvements.

Deeds, who represents much of the Charlottesville region, is now the Democratic nominee for governor.

The local loan program will be largely funded by money included in the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, which has $94 million for weatherization projects in Virginia, $60 million in energy efficiency block grants for Virginia and $70 million for the state’s energy program.

Local, state and federal officials gathered at Feggans’ house on Tuesday to highlight the potential of such programs to save homeowners money, reduce the strain on the power grid, curtail harmful emissions from power plants, and boost the market for clean energy technology that will lead to the creation of green jobs.

“This is what the president was aiming to do with the stimulus — not only inject money into the economy, but also to lay the groundwork that will ensure we have a prosperous future,” said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, at Tuesday’s event.

To help train workers for the green energy industry, Piedmont Virginia Community College is designing course offerings that the college expects to launch this fall. Valerie Palamountain, PVCC’s dean of workforce services, said she expects to see classes teaching how to perform home weatherization, energy audits and more.

“We have a plan in mind. Kind of a blueprint,” she said. “We’re on our way.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, said programs like the one being developed by Charlottesville and Albemarle County will have an impact on the economy by creating jobs and saving homeowners money, while also helping to achieve the government’s climate change objectives.

“This isn’t an elite liberal issue. This isn’t a grassroots low-income issue,” Perriello said. “This is about everybody coming together.”