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Success Stories

Below are just a few recent energy efficiency and renewable energy program success stories from the RGGI states.

For additional information, see recent press announcements related to the investment of CO₂ allowance proceeds.

CT High School to Benefit From RGGI-Funded Solar System

SunLight General Capital has begun construction on a $1 million, 200 kW solar electric power generating project at Ansonia High School in Ansonia, Conn. Ansonia High School is the city's largest consumer of energy.

The project, which is expected to generate nearly 230,000 kWh of energy each year, will be built at no expense to the City of Ansonia. In addition to the funding provided by SunLight General Capital, the project will receive a grant of more than $400,000 in RGGI proceeds through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

University of Delaware Professor Kent Messer and his students went to the state's Milford Neck region on Saturday, April 16, to start a project that aims to plant more than 55,000 trees over a 60-acre plot of land -- work that will result in the sequestration of an estimated 17,500 tons of carbon.

The team planted 5,000 trees in the initial weekend and, in addition to carbon sequestration, Messer said the trees will provide direct benefits for biodiversity and water quality in the region. The Nature Conservancy is leading the project. Additional funds are coming from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Alex Zhou was a bus driver for a Chinatown company offering no benefits before he landed a job as a weatherization technician in the Bay State’s growing “green” economy.

There are already dozens of green-energy training programs in community colleges and vocational high schools across the state, but thanks to pilot programs offered by a coalition of local community groups and energy-efficiency contractors, a more diverse group of people are finding a place in the “green-collar” industry. One such program is the “Pathways out of Poverty” Initiative, which is partially funded by proceeds from the RGGI auctions. In 2010, the program provided $200,000 each to Lowell, Brockton, Worcester, Pittsfield and Holyoke.

One group that administered the program, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, has had great success, already placing 113 full-time workers (out of a total of 200 trainees) in green-collar jobs.

RGGI proceeds are a catalyst, leveraging federal, state and private investments to revitalize downtown Village of Patchogue on Long Island.

Patchogue used $27,000 in RGGI proceeds to identify energy efficiency opportunities as part of a proposal to upgrade its waste water treatment plant. The analysis made Patchogue eligible for $11.4 million in federal and state funds, which it received for its proposed upgrade. Once federal and state dollars were committed, Patchogue was on its way to having the infrastructure to support downtown community revitalization and attracted more than $100 million in private investments. This investment made downtown Patchogue come alive. Blighted properties are now gone. In their place are 175 market rate residential units, 125 affordable housing units and five new restaurants. "Sewers. Without them, nothing would have happened in our downtown," said Village of Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri.

Irving Forest Products in Dixfield, Maine and Moose River Lumber in Jackman, Maine are just two of 19 companies that received RGGI-funded grants from Efficiency Maine’s Large Projects Grant Program in 2010. Together, the sawmills are investing more than $1.5 million to enhance long-term viability through energy efficiency.

According to Susan Coulombe, divisional manager at Irving Forest Products, the project will enable the Dixfield sawmill to produce 25 percent of its electricity on site, saving enough money to sustain 235 jobs. Moose River Lumber anticipates adding at least three jobs while retaining the 66 full-time and 5 part-time workers currently employed.

One company to emerge from a new RGGI-funded training program for building analysts at Lakes Region Community College (LRCC) is NHNRG, a full-service energy auditing and building performance contractor headquartered in Lisbon, New Hampshire.

The company was founded by Shad Lawton and Jamie Myers, both students in the October 2009 Littleton class. As a company, Lawton and Myers have conducted more than 140 energy audits and performed more than 80 building retrofits. “The key components of the audits that we are now doing every day are taught in the Building Analyst course,” said Mr. Lawton. “We had a very busy year in 2010, but there is enough housing stock in the North Country alone to keep several companies busy for years to come.”

The BPI certification program at LRCC was funded by two grants totaling $574,000 in RGGI proceeds.

EmPower New York is investing $3 million of RGGI proceeds to help 700 low income households save money while making their homes more comfortable. For example, in Watertown, N.Y., the program helped a family add attic insulation, seal doorways and install a programmable thermostat. The family reports that the house is quieter and less drafty, and the program estimates that the household will save $670 a year in the cost of home heating oil, and $60 in electricity bills annually.

EmPower serves households with income below 60 percent of state median income and pays for 100 percent of the approved work scope.

Chick’s Drive-In, a landmark restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut, was just one of nearly 1,900 small businesses to benefit from Connecticut’s Small Business Energy Advantage Program (SBEA) in 2010. Through SBEA, the restaurant received financial incentives for the purchase and installation of more efficient lighting and refrigeration equipment. As a result, the owner Joseph “Chick” Celentano is now saving hundreds of dollars on his electricity bill each month. The eatery will save 468,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity—the equivalent of planting 56 acres of trees or saving more than 17,000 gallons of gas—over the lifetime of the new equipment.

In 2010, RGGI proceeds represented about 7 percent of SBEA’s total funding.

Cayuga Community College (CCC) just got greener.

In the fall of 2010, the college installed 126 solar panels on the gymnasium roof at its Auburn, N.Y. campus. The 25.2 kilowatt system is expected to produce 26,844 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, saving the college approximately $3,600 on its annual electric bill. Half of the system cost was funded by New York’s investment of RGGI proceeds.

“People tend to think that Auburn is too far north to benefit from solar power,” said Kevin Drayer, director of buildings and grounds at CCC. “In recent years, though, renewable-energy technology has improved and costs have come down. And testing has shown that these units can withstand a four-season climate.”

The Vermont Community Energy Mobilization (VCEM) Project, a four-month campaign funded in part by RGGI, is reducing energy costs in Manchester by more than $5,000 per year, based on average Vermont residential electricity rates.

Manchester’s efforts brought 34 Efficiency Vermont-trained volunteers into a total of 48 homes in Manchester, Dorset and Peru to identify potential energy-saving retrofits, install energy-efficient products, and educate residents about ways to further reduce energy costs.

“A great component of this project is that is truly reflects Vermont’s state ethos of neighbors helping neighbors,” said VCEM statewide coordinator, Paul Markowitz.

St. Mary's was recently awarded two grants totaling $28,500 — $21,000 to install energy-efficient heat pumps in four public housing units on Lexwood Drive. For every $100 that occupants currently spend on heating and cooling costs, they will pay only $53 once the new pumps are installed.

"This is a very helpful amount of money and it has a direct impact on families who were paying a large amount of their monthly budget," said Dennis Nicholson, executive director of the housing authority.

Funding was provided as part of a $2 million RGGI-funded grant program aimed at boosting energy efficiency in Maryland. The Maryland Energy Administration expects the grants will help 1,400 state residents, saving them a total of $5.1 million in energy costs over the lifespan of the projects.

True Energy Solutions (TES) is just one of 17 companies providing free or discounted energy audits to homeowners in Monroe County, New York. Free TES audits are made possible by Green Jobs-Green New York (GJGNY), which is funded by a five-year, $112 million investment of the state’s RGGI proceeds.

Most homeowners who take advantage of the opportunity for a free audit reap financial benefits in the form of energy savings. Beneficiaries also enjoy warmer, more comfortable homes during the coldest months of the year. “Incentives help people get over the hurdle of cost in doing things the right way,” said Damian Hodkinson, Owner of TES.

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RGGI Helps MA's Carlson Orchards Go Solar

One of the largest orchards in Massachusetts has just cut its utility bill 80% with a $1.1 million 220 KW solar power plant. The state of Massachusetts helped Carlson Orchards with RGGI-funded grants totaling $595,000 to help in the installation of the 1,050 solar photovoltaic panels.

Last year the farm spent $80,000 last year on grid electricity. Now, the 220 KW solar plant in the orchard supplies 80% of the farm's energy. Only 20% of the farm’s needs is now supplied from the grid.

Households that participate in the EmPower New York program, which incentivizes energy education, energy audits and on-the-spot energy efficiency upgrades in oil-heated low-income households, save an average of 125 gallons of oil and realize approximately $500 in total energy bill savings annually.

Caroline and Arthur Holmwood of Greenfield Center, New York, saw their energy bill decline by 50 percent after receiving a new boiler and improved insulation through EmPower New York.

“Over the summer our electric bill was cut in half compared to the year before, and we expect savings during the heating season as well from our new boiler. It’s 97 percent efficient,” Mrs. Holmwood said.

Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, a charitable organization which provides education, rehabilitation and residential support services to more than 2,000 individuals per year, is just one of more than 30 organizations realizing energy savings as a result of New Hampshire’s investment of RGGI auction proceeds. Using a $176,531 RGGI-funded grant, the center connected one of its buildings to a state-of-the art central district heating system that uses wood chips harvested locally from New Hampshire forests. As a result of the project, the building now requires the equivalent of 6,000 gallons of heating oil per year, down from 25,000 gallons prior to the retrofit.

“Our residents now enjoy comfortable, regulated heat, from an efficient system fueled by wood from a nearby family-run business” said Ray Sebold, project manager at Crotched Mountain. “As the largest employer in the area, with more than 800 employees, keeping our costs low is a top priority. The RGGI grant is enabling us to save resources and cut costs while also supporting a local business with sustainable fuel purchases.”

The Orange Health Care Center, a 60-bed facility located in Orange, Connecticut, was just one of more than 1,300 businesses to benefit from the Connecticut’s Small Business Energy Advantage Program (SBEA) in 2009.

Through SBEA, the Center received a free energy assessment as well as a wide variety of energy efficiency measures to reduce energy costs and improve the working environment. When the project was completed and the facility was given a clean bill of health, the Center also received a $12,825 incentive from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and can expect an annual energy savings of 71,414 kWh.

MA Town Realizes Energy Savings

After 80 years of constant use, the Town Hall in Athol, MA, had become an uncomfortable place for its 29 employees.

“The town clerk’s office was so cold that we put plastic up inside the window,” says David Ames, Athol’s town manager. But when Ames priced replacing the original single-pane, triple-hung windows on the 40,000-square-foot building, the cost -- about $100,000 -- seemed prohibitive for a town of 11,299 residents.

All that changed when Athol received a $98,000 grant for new Energy Star-certified windows under Massachusetts’s Green Communities Program earlier this year. The grant, funded by RGGI, is enabling Athol to realize significant energy bill savings while improving working conditions for its employees.

Madison Paper Industries (Madison Paper), a Maine-based paper company with a staff or more than 240 based in Somerset County, received two RGGI-funded grants totaling more than $1 million for the installation of new heat exchangers to capture heat from its wastewater and papermaking process. The project will result in energy cost savings of more than $2 million per year - enough to support the retention of 18 jobs.

“These savings will help secure the future of an established paper mill facing difficult economic pressures," said Joe Clark, Madison Paper’s Reliability Engineer. "Without the grant funds we would not have been able to pursue these projects in the current business climate."

With the help of RGGI auction proceeds, Delaware's Sustainable Energy Utility has issued more than 14,000 rebates for new, energy-efficient household appliances. Collectively, the rebates will save Delaware residents more than $323,000 and cut over three million pounds of CO₂ emissions.

The program was primarily funded by Delaware’s investment of RGGI auction proceeds.

...Watch a video about the program.

Family-Run Market in CT Reduces Costs through Energy Efficiency

Bishop Orchards Farm market, a family-run market in Guilford, Connecticut, is just one of thousands of businesses to realize significant energy savings with help from Connecticut’s Small Business Energy Advantage Program (SBEA). SBEA, which is funded in part by Connecticut’s investment of RGGI proceeds, provided the market with a complete interior lighting upgrade, as well as incentives for large-scale efficiency measures, including the installation of night covers for open coolers and efficient motors for refrigerated units.

"SBEA has given us the tools to reduce our energy use, save resources and keep our costs stable,” said Keith Bishop, the market’s President and CEO. “We would not have been able to do this large project without the financial incentives from the SBEA program.”

In 2009, SBEA serviced more than 1,300 businesses, saving them a collective total of more than $5 million per year.

MD Art Museum Saves on Energy Costs

For Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), replacing the HVAC chiller to the 15-year-old exhibition building was a critical fix. Besides cooling its more than 100,000 annual visitors, the museum is responsible for the preservation of a vast collection of visionary art. The museum is a “storehouse for intuitive, self-taught artists” and “only museum of its kind in the country.” Katie Adams, the museum’s Director of Development, said. Temperature and humidity are concerns for the curators of this unique collection.

AVAM received a $40,000 grant through the Maryland Energy Administration’s (MEA) EmPOWER Clean Energy Communities Grant program. In addition to replacing the HVAC chiller, the funds are being used to seal the roofing connection to further preserve interior climate conditions. These energy efficiency improvements, which are also partially funded by a zero-interest Jane E. Lawton Conservation Loan from the MEA, are saving an estimated 78,000 kWh every year, which translates to an annual savings of more than $9,000, based on current fuel prices.

Efficiency Maine has just finalized a grant contract with GAC Chemical in Searsport for $314,000 that will allow the company to complete a $630,000 full-facility energy retrofit. GAC manufactures and distributes specialty chemicals to a worldwide market. The company is the largest industrial manufacturer in Waldo County, employing 60 people.

The energy project will keep these jobs in Waldo County and make GAC more competitive with companies outside of Maine with lower costs, according to Company President David Colter. “GAC competes in a national and international marketplace, and the purpose of this project is twofold: to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency, which in turn will strengthen our long-term stability,” said Colter. “Without the support of Efficiency Maine this project would not be possible.”

MA Towns Share in Green Funding

Acton, Hanover, Hopkinton, Kingston, Lancaster, Lincoln, Mashpee, Natick, Sudbury, and Worcester are just ten of 53 Bay State communities that will receive a share of $8.1 million in green community funding from the state. Funds will be used to fund a wide variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that reduce energy use and costs.

In Kingston, more than $163,500 will be invested to improve energy efficiency at the Kingston Elementary School, the Kingston Public Library and Smith's Lane Fire Station. A portion of funds will also be used to implement a fuel management system for police vehicles.

CT Homeowners Save Energy and Money

Todd M. Williams of Stratford, Connecticut, was just one of thousands of customers to realize energy savings after receiving a whole-home energy assessment from Connecticut’s Home Energy Solutions (HES) Program. Through the program, which is funded in part by Connecticut’s investment of RGGI proceeds, Mr. Williams received on-the-spot energy efficiency improvements, including basement insulation, low-flow showerheads and compact fluorescent lights. The program’s certified contractors also helped Mr. Williams apply for and secure a $2,100 rebate for large-scale equipment upgrades. “The HES program has really improved the comfort of my home,” he said.

Frank and Lois Bohdal are among more than 820 Marylanders who have received grants to help them install home solar, wind or geothermal energy systems.

Bohdal, a computer programmer with the state comptroller's office, has blanketed the south-facing roof of the couple's Millersville rancher with 40 solar panels. They cost a total of $55,000 - but the Maryland Energy Administration helped cover their installation with nearly $14,000 in grants. And the electricity they generate has reduced the couple's power bill by nearly a third. "So far, it's been worthwhile to me," said Bohdal, who notes that he was able to cover about half the upfront costs with federal and local tax credits.

The grants are partially funded by Maryland’s investment of RGGI auction proceeds.

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