Building Efficiency will be BIGGER than Solar in Mass – Part 1

On January 8th I attended a Breakfast Meeting at Foley Hoag with Phil Giudice, Commissioner of the Massachusset’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER).  It was a dynamite presentation that touched on smart grid, solar, biomass, and a variety of other interesting topics -  but the thing that dominated the conversation was this: there’s a tsunami of state and federal funds coming available for building efficiency in 2010.  As Phil said, “the money is there and the team is in place – it’s time to have our WOW moment.”  $650 million will be spent by the state to promote energy efficiency in each of the next three years (solar photovoltaic incentives through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center will be about $12M this year and that will create 30% growth for the solar industry in Massachusetts).  That’s compared to $150 million in 2008, and doesn’t include incentives offered by the utilities.  These numbers could get bigger as the federal ‘Cash For Caulkers’ program details come into focus.

So What?

Policy conversations about climate change, energy independence, and job creation are all converging on this single initiative.  The pieces are in place for a huge amount of money to flow through the building efficiency value chain and there are still plenty of holes to be filled.  Somebody has to execute and make all of this happen.  If you have an interest in building efficiency there may never be a better time to get actively involved.

Tagged as: Department of Energy Resource, Energy Efficiency, Phil Giudice, Solar PV