Agenda - 11-18-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 on Making use of the authority granted by the General Assembly to incentivize energy efficient construction is a straightforward way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the county level for the long term. CFE would like to explore crafting an incentive program that would be attractive to lower - income residents, for whom savings on utility bills would provide a particularly important benefit. To give an example of how such an energy efficient construction incentive might function, below is a summary of the Catawba County incentives enacted pursuant to N. C. Gen. Stat. §153A - 340: Catawba County is providing incentives to encourage the construction of sustainably built homes and commercial buildings. Rebates on permit fees and plan reviews are available for certain qualifying structures and renewable energy projects. Buildings designed and constructed in accordance with the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), NC HealthyBuilt Homes, Energy Star, or the National Association of Home Builders' Model Green Home Building Guidelines can receive a 25% blanket permit fee rebate, not to exceed $500. Catawba County will also rebate 50% of fees related to plan review or express plan review for commercial buildings seeking LEED certification. Additionally, existing one and two family homes and commercial buildings can receive a 50% rebate on the permitting fees associated with the installation of geothermal heat pumps, photovoltaic (PV) systems, solar water heating systems, and gray /rain water collection for flushing fixtures. Regular fees must be paid in full at time of plan review or permit issuance. Fee rebates will be refunded upon project completion and certification by third party inspection agency.2 Rebates or reduced fees for efficient construction could be structured on a sliding scale, with zero energy construction receiving the most robust incentives. Given the current level of permitting fees, rebates or reductions in Orange County could be designed here that could provide a substantial incentive for efficient construction. The CFE looks forward to working with the Planning Board on crafting an efficiency incentive program for consideration by the Orange County Board of Commissioners. We would appreciate the opportunity to have this item included on an upcoming agenda and to work with you on completing a draft proposal in the next few months. David Neal said this program is also in Catawba County, and he is happy to contact them to see if there is enough data to show if this has been effective. He does not know what budgetary implications this would have had for the planning department. He said otherwise it would not be hard to write a model ordinance for how a system like this would work. He said another recommendation is the idea of partnering with Duke Energy and Piedmont Electric to create affordable on -bill financing options for energy efficient upgrades. He said this might be appealing for lower income individuals. He said the USDA rolled out a program this year that allows rural electric coops to do on -bill financing programs. He said if Piedmont Electric could be encouraged to take advantage of this, it would be a great way to bring some money into the County to do energy efficiency work in a way that reaches low income individuals. He said this information is listed in the bullet points on page 12 of the report.