Be a Part of the Solution with Clean Energy Works Oregon

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, the agency which charts the course of the region’s electricity system, begins its most recent plan by saying the “improved efficiency of electricity use is by far the lowest-cost and lowest-risk resource available.” At CUB we’re always supportive of low cost, environmentally friendly power plans, so we fully support the Council’s goal to meet 85% of the Northwest’s load growth over the next 20 years through energy efficiency. This means that although projections show that in 2030 the region will use 7,000 average megawatts more of energy than we did in 2009, 5,900 average megawatts of this growth can be met by an ambitious plan to cut energy use.

Residential homes consume about 40% of the region’s total electricity use, so most of these savings will come from inside your or your neighbors’ homes. Many homes in the Northwest were built decades ago with little or no insulation because in the past it was cheaper to heat your home with electricity than to invest in insulation. Today, in order to meet the efficiency goals set by the regional power plan, tens of thousands of homes must be retrofitted to use less energy overall.

This is a daunting task. Skeptics argue that it is impossible to get tens of thousands of individual homeowners, each with different schedules, family obligations, and housing needs, to complete the costly and intrusive process of remodeling their nest egg to be more efficient. Clean Energy Works Oregon has an answer to this collective action problem: streamline the process of finding the most cost-effective upgrades, and then provide financial incentives for individuals to retrofit their homes.

Clean Energy Works Oregon is a nonprofit public-private partnership that allows Oregon’s homeowners to get a package of services, including an energy audit, home remodel, cash grant, and low-interest loan, from qualified professionals. By providing access to all of these services through one application, the program simplifies the process of retrofitting a home to save energy and makes an energy remodel attractive to homeowners.

Clean Energy Works Oregon recently opened its program to homes that are:
• owner-occupied,
• single family detached buildings built before 1993,
• in Clackamas, Jackson, Josephine, Multnomah and Washington Counties (other areas including Lane, Clatsop, Deschutes and Coos Counties will be added shortly).

How does the program work? First, a homeowner completes an on-line application. Then, if the homeowner qualifies, she receives a free in-home energy audit (valued at $500) from a qualified professional, who sets benchmarks for improvements in her home’s energy efficiency and comfort. Informed by the audit, the homeowner determines the scope of the retrofits. Then, Clean Energy Works Oregon arranges for a bank or credit union to provide a low interest, no money down loan to fund the retrofit work. Local contractors, certified by the Building Performance Institute and partners of the Energy Trust of Oregon, then perform the retrofit work on a schedule that is convenient for the homeowner.

Once the retrofit is complete, the contractor performs a quality assurance review to make sure that the home will reach the energy savings benchmarks established in the audit. Then, the homeowner is responsible for repaying the loan, most often through a new charge that appears on her monthly utility bill.

Clean Energy Works recently completed a pilot project with 500 homes in the Portland area. In that program, most homes realized a 30% or greater energy savings. Today, the program projects average savings of about $55 per month, with a monthly loan payment—while the largest rebates are still available—of roughly $69 for 15-20 years. This means homeowners can complete a remodel with no money down and a relatively minor impact on their monthly expenses.

The effect on homeowners, whose less drafty houses will be more comfortable and new windows easier to clean, are easy to quantify, but the implications for Oregon’s economy should not be understated. Over the initial three-year course of the program, Clean Energy Works Oregon expects to complete 6,000 residential retrofits, which will produce 1,300 family-supporting jobs.

CUB encourages all qualified homeowners to join the ranks of Clean Energy Works and help the region meet its energy efficiency targets.

CUB Executive Director Bob Jenks, whose home was built in 1926, will experience this process first hand: Bob plans to apply in the near future, and will update CUB followers with his experience in this program.

To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

• Share this post on Facebook.
• Share this post on LinkedIn.
• Share this post with email.

« Back