Advisory committee plans council briefing, dashboard and guest experts including a talk on Duke’s carbon plan

The Wilmington Clean Energy Advisory Committee discussed proactively briefing newly elected City Council members and creating a concise dashboard the council could use to compare conservative, moderate and aggressive clean‑energy options. "Maybe have a dashboard that we always refer to whether in our meetings or when we're presenting to them," one committee member said, urging a visual approach that includes costs and payback timelines.

Committee members recommended providing normalized energy‑intensity metrics (for example, kilowatt‑hours per square foot), historical trends and scenario projections that show the savings potential of low‑cost measures versus more aggressive investments. The Chair asked staff to prepare a normalized dataset and to draft a one‑page briefing or quarterly memo that could be distributed to councilors who prefer updates in writing.

Members also supported inviting outside experts to inform the committee. The Chair described a recent Sierra Club presentation by Dr. Hsu (a geologist and former UNCW professor) that included a local overview and sections on Duke’s proposed carbon plan; the committee agreed to invite him and to give guest speakers guidance about the committee’s priorities. The discussion included interest in public‑private financing tools: staff said C‑PACE has been adopted by the county and the city but has produced no projects yet, and members asked for updates on outreach and uptake.

The committee will not meet in December; staff will cancel the meeting and prepare materials for a January follow‑up when they will report back on outreach plans, the assessment results and the fleet study timeline.