Consultant outlines draft comprehensive energy plan for Oshkosh; presents targets, solar site reviews and funding options

Ted Redmond of consulting firm Pale Blue Dot presented a draft comprehensive energy plan to the Oshkosh Sustainability Advisory Board on Sept. 4, describing a data-driven, 10-year road map to reduce municipal energy use, expand renewables and guide capital investment.

The plan, Redmond said, is built from five foundational steps — data collection, energy benchmarking, solar site reviews, modeling of example solar projects and the development of a 25-action road map — and is intended to guide the city toward near-term targets for 2035 and longer-range goals around 2040.

Redmond said the consultant team benchmarked major city properties using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, performed “solar snapshots” on parks and buildings, and produced order-of-magnitude budgets and 30‑year return-on-investment estimates for roughly 33 prioritized sites. He described the plan’s purpose as helping the city “meet carbon reduction targets, reduce operational costs and guide proactive energy upgrades.”

Key numeric targets in the draft include reducing building energy use intensity (EUI) by roughly 12% by 2035 and 20% by 2040; achieving 1% net‑zero building square footage by 2030 and 5% by 2040; switching 20% of facility fossil-fuel use by 2035 and 40% by 2040; attaining 50% renewable electricity for city operations by 2035 and 100% by 2040 (the latter described as more aspirational); and lowering greenhouse-gas emissions from an estimated 15,000 metric tons annually today to about 5,600 metric tons by 2035 and to near zero under the longer-range goal.

Redmond emphasized implementation flexibility: the plan offers a menu of 25 detailed actions across five strategies and recommends annual prioritization based on capital schedules and staff capacity. He recommended tracking savings from energy investments in a dedicated reinvestment fund so that realized savings can seed future projects.

On solar and accounting for renewable attributes, Redmond explained renewable energy certificates (RECs) and cautioned that some third-party arrangements can transfer the REC (the environmental attribute) away from the municipality even if a solar array benefits the community in other ways. He said the plan flags those trade-offs for decision-makers.

Board members sought more granular ROI and baseline data. Jacob (Jake) Claymeier asked whether the plan could show per‑building kilowatt‑hour baselines alongside the benchmarking percentages; Redmond said the raw spreadsheet data and building baselines exist and can be exposed in the report view. Brad Spannbauer, the board’s council liaison and sustainability director at UW Oshkosh, praised the draft and asked about next steps. Paul Trader asked whether the plan considered other technologies such as small-scale wind, geothermal and, at a regional scale, nuclear; Redmond said those options can be considered but may require different, site‑specific technical studies.

Redmond also summarized modeled impacts if the strategic goals are met: roughly 2,200,000 kilowatt‑hours of annual site reductions, about 172,000 therms reduced annually, and an annualized cost‑savings figure the consultant estimated at about $300,000 (the report notes that annualized savings depend on timing of upfront investments and uses a lifetime-to-annualized calculation in an appendix).

The board was given a two‑week window to submit comments to staff; Redmond and staff expect to circulate a final draft for the board’s recommendation to council at the next meeting cycle. Redmond repeatedly framed the document as a draft that will be revised as data are double-checked and as the board and staff provide feedback.

Next steps: board members and staff will share requested clarifications (including exposing building-level kWh baselines and clarifying tax-credit timing) with Redmond and the consultant team; staff asked members to send comments to Emma by the stated internal deadline so a final draft can be prepared for the board’s review before referral to the Common Council.