State Energy Program Awarded Full Stimulus Funding
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced Wednesday Georgia has received all of the State Energy Program funding allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Georgia received an additional $41 million from the Department of Energy for a total of $82 million through the State Energy Program to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects while reducing pollution and creating jobs.
Georgia received 50 percent of the funding in July and received the rest this week after aggressive oversight, reporting, and accountability measures were put in place.
Here’s how Georgia plans to use these funds, according to a White House press release:
Georgia will implement several programs to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy across residential, commercial, industrial and governmental sectors with State Energy Program (SEP) Recovery Act funding. Together these programs advance energy independence and create and support jobs statewide.
The state will use a large portion of the Recovery Act funding to implement the State Utilities Retrofit Program, administered by the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority. In this new program, the state of Georgia proposes to allocate $65 million to retrofit state government facilities. This fund will be used to conduct energy audits and assessments and capital projects to pay for the incremental cost between standard and high-efficiency technologies. Proposals for funding will be selected based on the project’s ability to comply with state and federal energy goals and priorities, including energy independence, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the creation of green jobs.