Department of Energy Announced Retrofit Ramp-Up Program
As part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new $450 million program that is designed to serve as a catalyst for nationwide energy upgrades. Experts estimate that the Retrofit Ramp-Up program could save $100 million annually in utility bills for households and businesses.
The intent of this program is to create successful models of energy-efficiency programs that can be rolled out on a national basis. U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu stated, “The aim of the Retrofit Ramp-Up program is to jump start an industry that makes energy-efficiency savings easy to access and available to everyone. By encouraging partnerships between local governments and effective private enterprises, we hope tune-ups for buildings will become as accepted as tune-ups for cars. These efforts will save Americans millions of dollars, reduce carbon pollution and create new green jobs.”
Within this announcement, the DOE issued a request for information (RFI) for competitively selected local energy-efficiency projects. These RFIs allowed public comment on retrofit projects that make significant, long-term impacts on energy use—serving as examples for national energy-efficiency programs—as part of the competitive portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program. A major focus of this initiative is targeting whole-neighborhood building energy retrofits.
To learn more about how Eaton is getting involved, click here. Also, to register for an informative webinar discussing the Retrofit Ramp-Up program and Eaton’s solutions, click here.
To learn more about this initiative, visit the DOE Web site.
