Colorado Green Building Post

The Governor’s Energy Office announced a milestone in state weatherization work Friday - more than 2000 Colorado homes, occupied by low income residents, have received energy efficiency improvements using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars. Tom Plant, director of the Governor’s Energy Office and state Recovery Act Chief, Don Elliman hosted a senior DOE official at the home of Hazel Johnson as weatherization work was performed by Arapahoe County.

Hazel Johnson with her 3-year-old grandson, Dion Shay (Photos by Brian Brainerd)

Ms. Johnson is a 65 year old grandmother with grandchildren in her home. She said the work will make her home warmer and more comfortable for the childen. The weatherization crew is adding insulation, furnace, refrigerator and air-sealing at a cost of $4000 to make make the 1200 sq-ft home more energy efficient. The improvement will reduce Ms. Johnsons energy costs by 20-30 percent while making the home safer and more comfortable. The state weatherization program will spend nearly $80 million of ARRA funds to weatherize more than 10,000 Colorado homes. The Arapahoe County weatherization program has hired 12 new employees  and purchased new equipment to deliver the increased retrofit volume. There are 11 regional weatherization providers across Colorado.

State weatherization program director Doug Karl said that weatherization for Denver and Jefferson county continues to be delivered by Sun Power as contracts are finalized with Veterans Green Jobs to take over the work next spring. The announcement that non-profit Veterans Green Jobs had been named to provide weatherization services to homes in Region 9 mentioned that their proposal featured a for-profit partner that will do the energy audits to determine retrofit measures. GEO has not released the name of the partner because contracts have not been finalized, but an unnamed source tells me it is EnergyLogic of Berthoud, Colorado. This is good news for the local energy audit business, which has been hurt by the under-priced Xcel energy audit program. EnergyLogic pulled out of the Xcel program earlier this year.

The DOE funded weatherization program was also highlighted at the annual Tribal Energy conference held in Denver late last month. DOE is ramping up energy efficiency training to native American tribes that do not currently administer their own weatherization programs. Although state weatherization programs cover every county in the US, tribal members have historically under-utilized the state weatherization programs according to Lizana Pierce, Tribal Energy Project Manager for DOE. By teaching energy efficiency skills to tribal members, there is the opportunity to create green jobs on the reservation and improve the economic health of residents.

Tribes from as far away as the Arctic Circle and Mexico border with existing weatherization programs gave presentations about retrofitting homes on tribal lands. The extreme weather conditions on reservations highlight the benefits of weatherization to these economically distressed communities. When the Alaskan Aleut tribe calls its homeland “Birthplace of the Wind”, it is a sure bet that weatherization will pay out big energy savings.