Energy Efficiency Providers Offer New Incentives
Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 by keith in Sustainable Building
Cities across the U.S. are increasingly implementing green building ordinances or expanding the ones that they already have. However, in almost all cases, the ordinances are aimed at new construction or construction performed on existing buildings; that is, they do little if anything to affect the energy performance of older buildings, many of which figure to keep using their current technology until, one day, they end up replacing it with efficient technology because inefficient technology no longer exists. For some, such a scenario is considered of the growing pains that attend any changing of the guard. But for the highly eco conscious—energy efficiency companies among them—decades is too long to wait for existing buildings to become energy efficient.
As a result, energy efficiency providers have stepped up efforts to attract companies that occupy existing buildings to implement energy efficient design, particularly small businesses that would find in difficult to afford energy efficiency projects. One example of this trend can be seen in the Chicago based energy efficiency provider, Lime Energy’s, offering of extended financing to qualified small businesses. Under the plan, businesses can qualify for up two years of repayment interest-free, using the utility savings that result from energy efficient design to pay the balance. Most energy efficiency projects have a first year ROI of roughly 50 percent.
In addition to Lime Energy’s in house financing plan and others like it, building owners also have the opportunity to take advantage of programs between energy suppliers and energy efficiency providers that offer up to a 70 percent credit toward the total cost of an energy efficiency project, with the remaining amount being financed through the energy efficiency provider. Most programs between energy suppliers and energy efficiency providers are aimed at reducing state power consumption by a certain date, and their target is obvious: owners of existing buildings that can choose whether to implement energy efficient design or not.
