Scrolling through my newsfeed this morning, I came across some energy efficiency news coming out of Philadelphia. Basically, the municipality will use Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Act program to retrofit a host of government buildings with energy efficient technologies. The upgrades are pretty standard: HVAC, lighting and some smart tech, and possibly onsite battery storage.
As it stands, some of the buildings are obscenely wasteful. The worst is the Philadelphia District Five Health Center, which boasts an ENERGY STAR score of 14 out of 100.
This isn’t the first time Philadelphia has upgraded government buildings to make them more efficient:
“They were part of a similar energy efficiency renovation project in 2015, which included LED lighting, low-flow plumbing fixtures, weatherization, and insulation of a steam heating system. The project cost over $12 million, but resulted in energy cost savings of over $1.4 million each year. The project also reduced the buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions by 7,800 metric tons annually — the equivalent of the emissions from around 1,700 gas-powered cars.”
While this recent project is undoubtedly good, I’m dismayed that a municipality as important as Philadelphia has gone this far without retrofitting its government buildings. This is really low hanging fruit, and the fact that so much of it is still on the branch isn’t a good sign.