Company to explore energy efficiency
A Boston company that helped New York City develop a plan to address climate change has been hired for similar work in Charleston.
At Mayor Joe Riley's direction, Charleston has been working on a plan for local action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, and now the Coastal Conservation League has agreed to pay as much as $660,000 to hire the national consulting firm Serrafix to further that effort.
"We proposed doing it in Charleston because Charleston is interested in doing it, and it's a scale we can deal with," said Megan Desrosiers of the Coastal Conservation League. "The goal of this is to capture what is lost, and turn it into something that can stimulate the economy."
In other words, instead of throwing money away on energy that's wasted because of factors such as poor insulation or inefficient air-conditioning systems, spend that money on job-creating efficiency improvements that reduce energy needs and energy costs.
Serrafix would start with a $55,000 contract, which Charleston City Council already has approved, to do an evaluation and identify opportunities in Charleston for large-scale energy conservation. While no city funds are to be used for the contract, the agreement is between the city and Serrafix.
One focus of Serrafix's work would be helping to develop ways to finance efficiency upgrades in privately owned buildings on a citywide scale.
Large companies and institutions already have options for financing efficiency work. Charleston, for example, has contracted with Johnson Controls for $17 million worth of efficiency upgrades since 2001 in deals structured so that the city's energy-saving efforts more than pay for the cost of the improvements, which were spread out over a number of years.
Homeowners can undertake efficiency improvements on their own, of course, and there are substantial tax incentives to do so. But there's a lot of information to sort out.
"The goal is to create an operating strategy for doing this at a city scale," said Doug Foy, project leader for Serrafix, which describes itself as "an innovative hybrid of venture capitalist, project manager, systems integrator, strategy consultant and efficiency analyst."
"The ultimate goal is to help people take advantage of the technologies that are out there that can help people save energy and save money," Foy said.
Energy efficiency is regarded widely as low-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases. The argument essentially is: Why build a new coal-burning power plant to produce more energy, when the need for energy can be reduced by upgrading insulation, windows, doors, heating and cooling systems, large appliances and even light bulbs?
"They provide a framework that helps homeowners receive funds to have an energy audit done on their house," said James Meadors, a construction company owner who is chairman of the city's Green Committee. "As a result of those audits, a scope of work can be prepared to help folks make their homes more efficient and save money."
Meadors is helping the Coastal Conservation League raise money to pay for the consulting work.
"It's a grass-roots effort," he said. "To date, we have received $35,000 that will go toward paying for phase one of the Serrafix contract."
Meadors and Desrosiers said the second and more expensive phase of the work with Serrafix would begin only after funding was identified and would depend on a review of the first phase results.
Riley said the Serrafix contract was on his mind Feb. 20 when he met, along with dozens of other mayors, with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Energy Department staff in Washington.
"I was excited in talking to the energy folks, knowing that we will have that resource in Charleston to give us a game plan for energy conservation," Riley said.
