Successful new energy efficiency initiatives in Athens have made the county eligible for a competitive award from Georgetown University.
A $5 million prize has Athens officials rethinking the way they use energy.
Athens County, one of 50 remaining communities in the Georgetown University Energy Prize competition, is a semifinalist for reworking its energy usage strategy over a two-year period.
“This energy prize competition is a great opportunity to proactively address energy in our community,” Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel said at a launch event for the local competing project, UpGrade Athens County. “Athens is going to win the $5 million prize.”
The Georgetown University Energy Prize intends to challenge communities to work with local governments and utilities “to create and implement long-term plans for the continual improvement of energy efficiency,” according to its website.
Roger Wilkens, aggregation administrator of the Southeast Ohio Public Energy Council, said the body — which includes Athens County as well as the village of Amesville — is integral to the development of these long-term plans.
“Our community choice aggregation program allows us to band together and pool our purchasing power for energy supplies and energy services,” Wilkens said of the program, which was authorized a year ago. “Our goal is to develop a local generation of renewable power.”
Besides contracting with American Electric Power Ohio and Empower Gas & Electric for basic energy supplies, Wilkens said SOPEC hopes to have a 10-acre solar farm in place atop a Nelsonville landfill in just a year.
Because of the aggregation program, Wilkens also anticipates a 28 percent reduction in electric prices — a combination of generation, transmission and distribution costs — for the entire community.
Sarah Conley-Ballew, director of UpGrade Athens, said one of the main goals of the project is to connect local homeowners with accessible resources for energy efficiency.
Integral to that goal is providing an “energy advocate” available by phone, email and eventually web to provide information on topics like tax incentives, rebates and home audits.
“We’ve made great strides thus far, and there’s certainly more to come,” Conley-Ballew said.
Conley-Ballew said another major UpGrade project will fit municipal and public school buildings with solar panels through a $25,000 Joyce Foundation grant. UpGrade is currently determining which school to use as a pilot.
UpGrade projects have already seen results in the community. Last year, organizers successfully secured a REAP grant that partially funded geothermal energy at Village Bakery; Integration Acres and Casa Nueva Mexican Grill are now looking to install renewable sources, as well.
“(Athens County residents) want to save money, they want energy efficient homes, and they want to be energy independent,” said Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl in a news release about the competition. “If we all participate – the entire community wins.”
Athens County is competing against Oberlin, Ohio and 48 other communities including Berkeley, Calif., Madison, Wisc., and Cambridge, Mass.
Still, Wilkens is optimistic about UpGrade Athens’ chance at the $5 million prize.
“We have a much broader program than in all of Ohio for doing energy aggregation,” Wilkens said. “It goes beyond the efficiency of one entity — when we’re in tandem with these other programs, we have a greater strength than other communities.”
