COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A program started to help South Carolina residents make their homes more energy-efficient and lower their utility bills without putting any money down is going national.
During a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that he was putting $250 million into the national adoption of the program, which allows rural electric cooperative customers to take out USDA-funded loans to make energy upgrades and pay back the loans through their monthly utility savings.
“One of the big barriers in the past has been the inability of homeowners to access the upfront costs,” Vilsack said.
The program comes from an idea originally pushed by South Carolina’s 20 electric cooperatives, which provide electricity for one-third of the state’s population. In 2010, then-Gov. Mark Sanford signed the loan program into law, praising it as a measure that would extend home energy conservation to rural parts of South Carolina.
Under the proposal, a certified energy auditor would determine how to best conserve energy at a home, and whether the estimated long-term savings are worth the cost of improvements.
Two-thirds of the estimated savings would go toward repaying the loan. For example, if the drop in energy use results in a $100 monthly savings, $66 would go toward satisfying the debt, and the bill is still about $33 less than it would have been without the improvements. At the time, Michael Couick, CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina said he hoped to lend $750 million to retrofit 225,000 homes over 10 years, saving the equivalent in energy to half of a nuclear power unit.
With a $740,000 loan from USDA, South Carolina piloted the program in 2011. The results of that test run are still being studied, but the cooperatives say 125 homes were retrofitted, with an average loan of more than $7,200, replacing old or inefficient systems and sealing leaking areas.
The final impact of the pilot program is expected to be known in 2013. Energy savings in those homes was predicted to average more than 11,000 kWh a year, or over 35 percent of the home’s average total electric use. According to a preliminary study, an economic analysis from Coastal Carolina University estimated that, fully implemented, the program could save co-op members $270 million per year in electricity costs and create up to 1,500 new jobs after one year.
On Tuesday, Couick praised the expansive effort as a responsible way to spend federal dollars.
“This is one of the best ways that government can deploy money and get results,” Couick said.
Federal legislation that is still pending could further beef up funding for the program, which U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., touted as a win-win, both for the families it helps and the communities that employ it.
“South Carolina is just the ideal state to have launched this,” Clyburn said.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
