Alberta companies could get up to 50 per cent rebates on some energy-efficient products this spring as part of the province's new rebate program, says one of its chief architects.
Julie-Ann Vincent of Dunsky Energy Consulting spoke to about 225 delegates Tuesday as part to the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance's annual conference.
Dunsky is the company designing Alberta Environment's first three energy efficiency programs, which are set to launch this spring.
The province is now picking companies to deliver these programs, said Jesse Row, executive director of the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance. They are the residential no-cost energy saving program, the consumer rebates, and the business, non-profit, and institutional sector rebates.
Efficiency starter kit
St. Albert's Tanya Doran, who was at the conference to speak about net-zero schools and served on the provincial panel that recommended these programs, described them as a "starter kit" for energy efficiency as they were easy to do and readily available to all Albertans.
The no-cost residential program will let residents invite an energy expert into their home to find savings opportunities and provide free improvements such as LED bulbs, faucet aerators, smart thermostats and advanced power strips, Vincent said.
"People like free stuff," she said, and these freebies will get people thinking about other ways to save energy. Also, unlike insulation and other big upgrades, these improvements are available to condo and apartment residents that don't always own their homes. Nova Scotia, Manitoba and B.C. have already rolled out programs similar to this.
Many Albertans have yet to do these simple improvements around the home as Alberta has not had a history of promoting them, Vincent said.
Doran, a self-described energy-efficiency fanatic, said she recently discovered that she still had a few incandescent bulbs in her house despite her best efforts.
"I quite frankly am looking forward to having somebody come to my house and walk through my home and make sure everything is as efficient as possible."
The consumer rebates will be a combination of mail-in and point-of-sale discounts on appliances, light bulbs, insulation and other products, Vincent said. The size of these rebates was still in the works. The institutional, commercial and non-profit rebates will at first focus on lighting, heating and ventilation, and water systems, and should cover 30 to 50 per cent of the cost of parts and labour.
The opportunity
Doran said homes account for about 28 per cent of Alberta's energy use, with business, non-profits and institutions making up about 58.
"That's a lot of the low-hanging fruit," she said.
Row said his group estimates that the $645 million the province plans to spend on energy efficiency in the next five years should yield about $2 billion in savings and emission reductions equivalent to taking about a million cars off the road based on similar programs run elsewhere. It should also create about 3,000 jobs, many of which would have to be local ones to install all these efficiency upgrades.
"There's pretty much no building, even new ones, that don't have energy efficiency opportunities in them," Row said.
These are just the first of many incentive programs set to come out of Energy Efficiency Alberta, Vincent said. Transportation and deep-energy retrofits would be good areas to address next, and the province has hinted at solar incentives.
"Energy efficiency is the one part of our energy system that allows customers to spend less," she noted. By taking advantage of these programs, residents will be able to cut energy costs and pay less carbon tax.
Row said research by the Acadia Centre suggests that every dollar spent on energy efficiency programs in Canada generates between four to eight dollars in GDP.
Vincent said her company would report estimates on the greenhouse gas impacts of these programs to the province in a few weeks.
