The City of Charlottesville will launch the new Local Energy Alliance Program early next year to provide area property owners with financing and resources to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses.
LEAP will encourage Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents to make upgrades to their homes that will decrease their energy consumption and lower their electricity bills, Charlottesville Environmental Administrator Kristel Riddervold said.
"The main goal of the program is to support community residents and businesses to pursue and implement energy efficiency, and through that, there will be good construction jobs retained and created," she said.
Property owners who contact LEAP for assistance will be directed to area construction companies that will make the actual improvements. LEAP will provide and arrange for financing when necessary through loans, she said.
"It will largely depend on whether property owners are interested and in need of financing support to do the work," she said.
LEAP officials also will direct property owners to federally and privately-funded grant programs willing to support projects. The program will essentially serve as a conduit between local property owners and construction companies, Riddervold said, as state and local governments nationwide attempt to encourage constituents to reduce their environmental impact.
"The intention is for [LEAP] to facilitate the whole process and make it easier for homeowners to tackle energy efficiency," she said.
Timothy Hulbert, president of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, said one of the program's main benefits is that it will provide loans and financing at a time when credit is hard to obtain. Because of the current recession, "lending right now is very tight," he said, "and commercial enterprises are looking to make investments that will drive customers in."
Furthermore, area construction contractors also will benefit from the project because it will help increase consumer spending, he said.
"Until the consumer has a little more confidence in spending," he said, "[the recession] is going to linger a little bit."
Additionally, LEAP will help to facilitate the introduction of renewable energy in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region, Riddervold said. By assisting area residents lower their utility bills, LEAP will make the transition from non-renewable to renewable energy easier for residents to afford, as renewable energy currently costs more than energy produced through non-renewable sources.
"We see it to be very critical to make sure you have efficient buildings before you start installing the more expensive clean energy technologies," Riddervold said.
Albemarle County resident Shirley Dukes said she supports programs like LEAP because they aid the community in a variety of ways.
"Generally, I think it's extra beneficial from several perspectives," she said, noting the potential benefits to construction companies as well as homeowners' savings.
Others who live outside the Charlottesville-Albemarle region said programs similar to LEAP implemented in their communities have proven successful. Rebecca Hartman said she used to live in Minnesota, where cold weather makes the gains from improvements in energy efficiency significantly greater. Energy efficiency programs in her locality were embraced by residents, as the initiatives lowered their utility bills and helped increase business for construction companies, she said.
Riddervold said officials are currently conducting pilot projects to determine the best ways to provide financing to residents. An exact date for the program's launch has yet to be set.
"There's a lot of legwork to put this in place," she said.
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