As the Redwood County Building Supervisor, Loren Gewerth oversees the general maintenance for county buildings – which means also overseeing a lot of energy use. With the county facing both budget constraints and a reduction in government aid, Gewerth was growing concerned about energy costs and maintenance and began looking for ways to make efficiency improvements to the county buildings.
Thankfully, Gewerth’s concern and Redwood County Commissioner’s approval coincided with the opportunity to apply for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and thus, the Redwood County lighting efficiency effort was launched. The total cost of the lighting retrofit project was $95,470; the EECBG funding accounted for $70,744.28, and the county received a matching grant of $24,726. The funds went to upgrade lighting fixtures in five county buildings:
- Redwood County Courthouse
- Human Services Department
- Law Enforcement
- Highway Department, and
- Public Health Department (made possible by the original four projects coming in under budget)
The project entailed:
- retrofitting 820 lighting fixtures from T12 to T8’s
- changing metal halide and mercury vapor fixtures to LEDs, and
- replacement of exit sign lighting.
While the combined grant money (EECBG & the matching grant) almost paid back the cost of the project on its own, the county also received $24,119.83 in rebates from Redwood Falls Municipal Utility after the project was completed.
Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency provided a summary of estimated energy consumption and their corresponding potential rebates by building for 2011. A breakdown of how the lighting rebates were allocated is as follows:
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Gewerth also emphasized the additional safety benefits seen from the upgrades, “We were able to improve our security lighting around our buildings converting from metal halide and mercury vapor to LED and replaced our exit lighting throughout our buildings.”
Securing the additional rebate dollars provided the county with funds to invest in other municipal projects. Redwood County expects these energy-saving trends to continue, and anticipates that the payback from the energy saved will continue to supplement further county projects.
About the Local Government Energy Action Series:
This effort tells the stories of Minnesota municipalities, counties, and schools and the tangible results of their energy-saving efforts to inspire others to take their own actions.
