U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Thursday announced more than $453 million in Recovery Act funding to expand weatherization assistance programs in 15 additional states.
These funds, along with additional funds to be disbursed after the states meet certain Recovery Act milestones, will help these states achieve their goal of weatherizing more than 165,000 homes.
The following states received 40% of their total weatherization funding yesterday: California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia. Under the Recovery Act, states may spend up to 20% of funds to hire and train workers.
DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program will be available to families making up to 200% of the federal poverty leve–or about $44,000 a year for a family of four. Weatherization projects allow low-income families to save money by making their homes more energy efficient, which results in average savings of 32% for heating bills, DOE said.
States will spend approximately $6,500 to weatherize each home.
The funding allocations for the Weatherization Assistance Program follow a stage-gate process: on March 12, funding allocations by state were announced and the initial 10% of total funding was available to states and territories to support planning and ramp-up activities; comprehensive state applications were due on May 12th; following a DOE reviews for each state, 40% allocations are awarded; and the remaining 50% of funds will be released when states meet reporting, oversight, and accountability milestones required by the Recovery Act.
Yesterday’s installment adds to the initial 10% of the states’ funding allocations that were awarded previously for training and ramp-up activities. Following a review of their comprehensive state plans, these 15 states have now received 50% of their Recovery Act Weatherization Assistance Program funding.
DOE said the 15 states receiving funds submitted aggressive and innovative plans to expand their weatherization programs. Examples include:
California ($74,324,424 awarded) plans to leverage a network of over 50 non-profits, local governments, and community action associations to perform weatherization services at over 50,000 homes. Prior to weatherizing a home, weatherization providers will use national auditing tools to conduct home energy audits that will help inform which weatherization activities should occur in a particular home. In order to ensure quality, the state will also mandate that a third party inspect all weatherized properties, measuring performance based on the quality of work and the speed in which it is implemented.
Florida ($70,393,790 awarded) plans to weatherize more than 19,000 homes over the next three years. The increase in funding will be used to weatherize multi-family homes, which is not typically possible at traditional weatherization funding levels, DOE said. Priority for multi-family weatherization projects will be given to assisting the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with children under 12.
Nevada ($14,912,775 awarded) will utilize funding from the Recovery Act to perform weatherization services and also implement job training programs for the energy efficiency industry. The Nevada Housing Department will facilitate work at more than 5,500 low-income homes by partnering with community action associations based in Reno, Las Vegas, Henderson, Carson City, and Ely. The state intends for the training to provide a tiered or career ladder approach that provides opportunities for optional training that would go toward an associate degree in renewable energy. The state also plans to emphasize homeowner education by providing written explanations about the weatherization measures taken and customer satisfaction surveys.
South Carolina ($23,557,108 awarded) plans to use its funding to implement comprehensive weatherization measures for over 6,500 homes in the state, as well as contributing to the creation of six regional energy efficiency job training centers. South Carolina, which expects to have 75% of the homes weatherized in two years, will focus on energy audits and weatherization retrofits for single-family, multi-family, and mobile-home units.
Utah ($15,158,881 awarded) will use its Recovery Act funding to weatherize more than 4,400 homes, reducing energy use and costs for thousands of families across the state while improving living conditions in the home. Utah has climate extremes with temperatures commonly ranging from less than -30 degrees Fahrenheit to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Many of these extreme weather conditions occur in areas less than 100 miles apart.
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