Federal Government Issues Challenge: Fix Our Buildings!
By Erin Weaver
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has issued a “Deep Retrofit Challenge,” submitting 30 federal buildings for retrofitting through energy service performance contracts (ESPCs). According to GSA, commercial retrofit projects not only create jobs but also save taxpayers money.
After a thorough energy audit of a building, the energy services company (ESCO) arranges project funding; an ESPC is a guarantee that proposed improvements will result in sufficient cost savings to pay for the project over a contract period of up to 25 years, during which time the first costs of the retrofit are typically paid back to the ESCO through savings on utility bills (see “Obama Announces $4 Billion Retrofit Investment,” EBN Jan. 2012).
DISCUSSIONS
RELATED ARTICLES