Maine program gives small towns a leg up on electrification funds | Energy News Network

A brand new grant program in Maine goals to assist speed up the transition to electrical warmth pumps within the state’s smallest cities.

In August, Effectivity Maine introduced a $4 million program to assist cities with fewer than 5,000 residents reduce vitality use in public buildings. 

Although the plan is modest in measurement, organizers hope it’s going to assist speed up the transfer from fossil fuels to electrified warmth throughout the state. 

“We simply must spur this market transformation,” mentioned Michael Stoddard, govt director of Effectivity Maine. “These public {dollars} are extremely useful to get that going.”

This system, funded by the federal American Rescue Plan, is a part of a latest focus by Effectivity Maine on serving to underserved communities entry the advantages of vitality effectivity and clear vitality know-how. This summer time, the company introduced an $8 million initiative to assist pay for electrical car chargers in rural areas.

The most recent program focuses on a very urgent concern for Maine: The necessity to transition to a cleaner heating gas. The state experiences chilly winters – temperatures routinely drop beneath zero – and a few 60% of households within the state use heating oil to remain heat, the very best proportion of any state within the nation. Heating oil is among the many dirtiest heating fuels out there and costs, which have lengthy been unstable, have doubled prior to now 12 months. 

Widespread adoption of electrical warmth pumps is a significant a part of the state’s environmental agenda. The one emissions related to warmth pumps are these produced by the electrical energy that powers them. And the price of utilizing warmth pumps is usually nicely beneath that of utilizing heating oil. In 2019, Maine set a purpose of putting in 100,000 warmth pumps by 2025, a goal it’s nicely on the best way to assembly. 

As adoption continues to develop, Effectivity Maine desires to ensure that smaller cities and cities have an opportunity to get in on the monetary and environmental advantages. 

“Smaller cities face some boundaries which might be both completely different or a bit bit extra pronounced,” Stoddard mentioned. “With this initiative we thought we’d begin by concentrating on a number of the cities that by advantage of their measurement we consider have confronted extra of those boundaries.”

Smaller cities, Stoddard mentioned, could have a more durable time getting contractors to bid on their initiatives. They might have fewer workers, making it tough to place collectively paperwork or financing preparations. And in small cities with decrease common incomes, there could also be resistance from residents who surprise why their tax {dollars} ought to pay for benefits they’ll’t afford for their very own properties, mentioned Richard LaBelle, city supervisor of Norridgewock, a central Maine neighborhood with a inhabitants of about 3,300.

These cities may merely have too many competing calls for for restricted income, mentioned Neal Goldberg, a legislative advocate with the Maine Municipal Affiliation. 

“They produce other price facilities they have to be conscious of,” Goldberg mentioned. “Is that this the 12 months to put in a warmth pump or is that this 12 months to purchase sufficient salt to maintain your roads secure?”

A simplified course of

To assist small cities overcome these obstacles, the brand new program presents vital monetary incentives to assist pay for initiatives that may reduce municipal vitality payments and carbon emissions. Effectivity Maine expects most members will pursue warmth pump retrofits, although LED lighting initiatives, refrigeration upgrades, and different heating and air flow tools additionally qualify for incentives. 

Eligible buildings embrace city halls, neighborhood facilities, public security buildings, public works amenities, and libraries. Colleges, outbuildings, and non-permanent constructions usually are not eligible. The incentives range with mission kind, however municipalities can obtain as a lot as $2,800 for the set up of a brand new high-performance air-source warmth pump in an current constructing, capped at 90% of the entire mission price. 

Norridgewock has made use of earlier Effectivity Maine incentives and expects to make the most of this new supply as nicely, LaBelle mentioned. Norridgewock is an inland city with out a lot vacationer site visitors to assist enhance income, he mentioned. The incentives, due to this fact, make it simpler to make a case to residents that they are going to get their cash’s price from investments in energy-saving initiatives.  

Lately the city has upgraded a lot of the lighting in municipal buildings to LEDs and put in warmth pumps in some amenities, together with its library and hearth station. LaBelle expects to make use of the brand new program to assist deployment of warmth pumps in much more buildings. 

“We’re in search of efficiencies in any approach we probably can,” he mentioned. “It has been a rising concern for us, naturally, as we see the nationwide developments in fossil fuels and the prices of vitality.”

Recognizing that small cities could not have sufficient workers to finish complicated or aggressive software processes, Effectivity Maine has made these grants noncompetitive and tried to streamline the paperwork as a lot as potential. And these efforts make a distinction, LaBelle mentioned. 

“Usually, municipal officers may be afraid of making use of for grants due to administrative burdens,” LaBelle mentioned. “They’ve actually, actually minimized that.”

To use for these newest grants, a neighborhood want solely select the mission kind it’s planning to pursue and full a primary type that may permit Effectivity Maine to confirm the eligibility. The company additionally presents digital consultations to cities that want help figuring out what initiatives would possibly make sense for his or her amenities.

“When you’ve got a finite funds, for those who simply make it first-come, first-serve, then the cities with deeper pockets will are inclined to eat a lot of the funds faster,” Stoddard mentioned. “There is probably not a lot left by the point smaller cities are capable of get their financing all in a row.”