Energy Efficiency in New Hampshire: The Year in Review

By Eric Halter

Energy Technical Assistance and Planning for New Hampshire Communities (ETAP) is the largest program CLFV Ventures is currently working on. The $2-million-dollar program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning (NH OEP), provides technical assistance to help New Hampshire communities upgrade the energy efficiency of their municipal buildings and facilities. The program forwards CLF Ventures’ goal to strengthen the New England environment by improving the energy performance of municipal buildings, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. The ETAP program was officially launched in June 2010, but this past year has seen the majority of the work done in New Hampshire communities.

As 2011 draws to a close, we want to take stock of how CLF Ventures has helped advance energy efficiency in New Hampshire. This includes:

• Performing outreach to all 245 New Hampshire municipalities and 10 counties
• Providing technical assistance to over 120 of these communities
• Conducting initial energy inventories in 50 communities
• Performing energy assessments of over 300 municipal buildings
• Identifying over $9.5 million in energy efficiency projects

We’re currently adding up the energy savings from projects started as a result of this work, and we’ll be putting together a report to NH OEP in mid-2012. What we know so far, though, is that the ETAP program has already made a huge difference by helping New Hampshire officials identify ways to reduce their energy use, reducing carbon emissions, and saving taxpayer dollars.