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State and Local Climate and Energy Program

Cold Climate Community Solutions – Duluth Energy Efficiency Program

Duluth, Minnesota

Federal Funding: $500,000
Project Timeline: February 2011 – January 2014

Project Summary

Making Energy Affordable for All Duluth Residents

Latest Update.
The Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP) continues to increase residential energy efficiency. Canvassers visited 6,670 residences and distributed information about DEEP. As of December 2011, the City has generated energy scores for over 870 single-family, multi-family, and low income homes and completed air sealing, insulation, and mechanical replacement projects in 140 single family homes. The City has also completed construction on the Duluth One-Stop Energy Shop and held a grand opening. Future work includes completing household energy scores and energy efficiency improvements, and generating an energy score for the larger community.

The City of Duluth has created the Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP) to create jobs, lessen the energy affordability gap faced by Duluth families, retain energy dollars currently exported from the city, and reduce Duluth's carbon footprint. The program focuses on residential energy efficiency, and develops best practices from community behavior change to the installation of energy efficiency measures. DEEP will work to improve housing affordability and reduce energy costs through four "pathways," each focusing on a different residential circumstance including single family, multi-family (5+ units), do-it-yourself, and low-income advanced energy retrofits. The program recognizes the different barriers to energy efficiency faced in each of these circumstances, and has developed pathway-specific resources for each.

For single family households, DEEP will provide energy counseling that will take participants through audits, actual improvements, and quality assurance. All improvements under this pathway are conducted by Building Performance Institute (BPI) certified contractors. The multi-family pathway, on the other hand, will provide options for both landlords and tenants to save on their energy bills. Under this pathway tenants will receive low-cost or no-cost measures to reduce electrical and water usage, and landlords will be encouraged to assist in organizing tenant workshops in order to maximize participation and landlord audit subsidies. For individuals who would rather do their own improvements, the Do-It-Yourself pathway will provide access to a specialized workshop and a BPI technician that will provide blower door testing, scope development, one day of side-by-side assistance, and follow-up quality assurance. Finally, the low-income pathway of the program will conduct gut rehabilitations of blighted, foreclosed, and condemned structures that serve as training sites for current state inmates, who will be supervised by trained carpenters. All rehabilitated buildings will have a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rating over 70. Building purchasers will then attend DEEP workshops to receive information on behavioral change energy reductions.

For all pathways, DEEP will conduct outreach to find participants, assist with a Home Energy Rating, maintain a database of all clients, offer workshops and demonstrations tailored to client's needs, tailored financing assistance, home performance audits, and quality assurance follow-up once improvements are made. In addition to reducing energy use, energy costs, and greenhouse gases, the program will create awareness of lead and radon testing, improve indoor air quality, create jobs, and develop affordable housing.

Community Characteristics

Population: 84,463
Area: 68 square miles
Government Type: City
Community Type: Urban
Median Household Income: $39,602

Program Results/Estimated Results

Expected GHG Reductions: 7,012 metric tons CO2e annually
Expected Electricity Savings: 5 million kWh annually
Expected Green Jobs Created: 10
Expected Energy Cost Savings: $680,000 annually

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