Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Energy Climate topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CLEAR and town staff outline energy, benchmarking and geothermal planning; greenhouse gas inventory update planned
Summary
CLEAR and town staff updated the board on building energy assessment proposals, benchmarking outreach, a possible municipal thermal-energy network, and a planned update to the town’s greenhouse gas inventory; staff recommended a small working group to advise on voluntary and mandatory assessment triggers.
Lauren (CLEAR program staff) and colleagues briefed the board on a portfolio of energy and emissions work, including building-energy-assessment planning, state benchmarking outreach, geothermal thermal‑energy-network conversations with Holy Cross and a planned update to the town’s greenhouse-gas inventory.
Lauren described five broad work tasks CLEAR will support for the town: energy savings in the built environment, building energy-assessment requirements, promotion of state benchmarking requirements, home energy-assessment programs and rebate program design. She said CLEAR helped run 55 home energy assessments last year and will follow up with those households as new rebates and incentives become available.
On building benchmarking and assessment, Lauren said the town has discussed potential triggers for mandatory energy assessments—examples elsewhere include sale/transfer or property listing triggers—and suggested forming a small working group to study options and recommend locally appropriate thresholds. She noted Colorado’s state benchmarking rule covers a narrow set of large buildings and that the town could examine a lower local threshold in future years.
On geothermal and thermal‑energy networks, Lauren said CLEAR is facilitating early conversations with Holy Cross about whether that electric cooperative would study a municipal-scale thermal-energy network (TENS). Holy Cross staff plan to present to the trustees on April 8 about their TENS work. Lauren said a scoping study would examine whether local thermal assets and load profiles justify further work; similar efforts are underway in other Colorado mountain towns.
CLEAR will also update the town’s greenhouse-gas inventory this summer once utility data arrive, and the board will need to choose whether that inventory covers only town operations or the entire community. Lauren asked the eBoard for input and volunteers for a possible working group on building-energy-assessment design.
The board agreed that tracking geothermal and energy-assessment work and clarifying the inventory scope were priorities to return to at the next meeting; no vote was taken.
