The US Energy Department awarded nearly $4 million to 13 states to increase statewide energy savings and boost the energy efficiency of public institutions, local governments and industrial sectors. The Wisconsin State Energy Office received a $400,000 grant as part of that with an $80,000 match for Driving Demand for Public Facility Retrofits with the Municipal Energy Efficiency Technical Assistance Pilot Program (MEETAP). The project will focus on planning for and preparing to execute a statewide municipal technical assistance program as a way to drive demand for performance contracting, and improve and deepen energy usage data collection through annual reporting of energy use baselines by various municipal partners and schools. It will fund the continuation of the quarterly regional Energy Independent Communities meetings (commonly referred to as: Energy On Wisconsin) as well.
In addition, Wisconsin will receive $75,000 out of $751,000 to address specific policy, regulatory or market barriers to greater investment in energy efficiency and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies. CHP technology captures and reuses heat created during electricity production and other industrial processes-boosting overall building efficiency.