US DoE awards more than $17m to local energy projects

• Detroit, Michigan, will launch a benchmarking technical assistance programme for owners of affordable housing units, community organisations, and places of worship. This initiative supports a resolution by Detroit City Council that requires all property owners to track and disclose their annual energy and water usage. The city aims to partner with a local organisation to promote stakeholder engagement, compliance, and progress under this resolution. Additionally, Detroit will further advance its sustainability goals by hiring two new energy professionals to spearhead projects in renewable energy and municipal building energy management. Overall, the city of Detroit will pursue a range of EECBG programme Blueprints to achieve its goals. (Award amount: $582,030)
• Euless, Texas, conducted energy-efficient lighting upgrades at the Parks at Texas Star Sports Complex. Specifically, the city replaced over 380 metal halide lighting fixtures with energy efficient LEDs across five baseball fields and one soccer field. (Award amount: $117,300)
• Greenville County, South Carolina, will purchase public single-stream recycling containers to replace inefficient dual-stream receptacles across the county. The county will also install fibre compactor units in strategic locations to increase the hauling efficiency and decrease emissions associated with transporting those materials. Greenville estimates this project will mitigate over 150 metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions every year. (Award amount: $393,510)
• Indianapolis, Indiana, will launch a learn-on-the-job workforce training programme to audit up to 200 municipal buildings in partnership with the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, a DOE Industrial Assessment Centre. Indianapolis will also create a new energy management software to track internal benchmarking. The city will hire an energy manager to interpret the benchmarking data, develop an enterprise-wide energy team, and generate new energy efficiency strategies. The city will leverage its remaining funds for a pilot programme to demonstrate how a Strategic Innovation Fund for priority retrofit projects could be implemented. To execute the pilot, the energy team will use the workforce audit programme data to determine locations where high-efficiency lighting updates would maximise impact, work with city staff to implement those installations, and capture the savings outcomes. (Award amount: $787,040)
• Jonesboro, Arizona, will deploy its funds to provide energy efficiency upgrades and assessments to infrastructure across the city. First, the city will provide grants to nonprofit organisations for building retrofits – ultimately saving the non-profits money and promoting the sustainability of their public infrastructure. The city will also replace approximately 70 high-pressure sodium streetlights with LEDs in local communities to enhance roadway safety and reduce energy usage. Remaining funds will be deployed for an energy assessment of Jonesboro City Hall. (Award amount: $137,970)
• Largo, Florida, will pursue several efforts to reduce emissions across the city. First, the city will host community classes to teach residents how to read energy bills, use smart devices and smart meters, and take advantage of weatherisation and home energy upgrades. Energy Audit Kits and renter-friendly retrofit kits will be available for check-out at the City of Largo Public Library.  Second, Largo will purchase an energy management and monitoring software to provide standardised utility bill analysis on the city website for public view. In support of electric vehicle adoption, the city will replace four aging Level 2 EV charging stations that are available for public use. Lastly, funding will go towards lighting upgrades in the City of Largo Public Library with an anticipated 35 per cent reduction in annual energy usage and cost savings of $69,215 annually. (Award amount: $140,740)
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will complete several projects to advance its net-zero goals. First, the city will fund a virtual emissions forecasting dashboard for city facilities. Second, Milwaukee will leverage an energy-saving performance contract and city personnel to conduct audits and implement energy efficiency upgrades in municipal buildings. Likely efficiency upgrades will include new LED lighting, compressed air leak mitigation, and EV charging. This project combines key activities from several EECBG Programme Blueprints. (Award amount: $522,370)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will pursue two distinct projects. First, the city will host a design competition to promote resilient and energy efficient housing. Architects may compete by submitting sets of construction plans for energy efficient and resilient single-family homes, accessory dwelling units, and duplexes. Each set of permit-ready resilient housing plans will be required to exceed performance of current codes and include solar-ready, EV-ready, and passive solar considerations. Teams that score the highest on a range of metrics (for example, energy use, affordability) will receive a flat fee of $15,000 per plan. The availability of free construction plans using these housing types will help expand housing capacity, reduce monthly utility expenses for residents, and generate more affordable, accessible housing for residents. Ultimately, this programme will give city residents and builders 18 permit-ready home plans to use at no cost. Second, Oklahoma City will develop a new EV infrastructure strategic plan. (Award amount: $612,250)
• Pinal County, Arizona, will purchase and install nine pay-as-you-go EV charging stations throughout the City of Casa Grande and Pinal County. These charging stations will increase access to EV charging infrastructure in rural communities. The project will follow key steps to advance the state’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plan, which supports the expansion of alternative fuel corridors. (Award amount: $273,780)
• Town of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, aims to enhance sustainable transportation options by installing four wide bike lanes. This initiative will support the Net Zero Mount Pleasant Plan, currently under development, to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. (Award Amount: $142,750)
• Town of Rye, New York, purchased an electric truck, EV charging station, and electric snow blower with portable charging stations. Electrifying these pieces of equipment will allow the town to maintain its public parks while reducing municipal emissions. (Award amount: $72,256).

DoE offers extensive technical assistance to support EECBG programme grantees, including Blueprints and Blueprint Cohorts. Blueprints provide 13 guides to implementing eligible and high-impact clean energy and energy efficiency projects and programmes. Blueprint Cohorts offer EECBG programme-eligible communities the opportunity to gain insights from industry experts and other participating peers.