ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) has extended the open application period for the USDA-funded Commercial Building Energy Audit program for commercially owned buildings located in rural Alaska i.e., outside of the Municipality of Anchorage. The new deadline is Sept. 30, 2018.

According to the AEA, nonresidential buildings consume more than half the building energy use in Alaska, and the majority of these buildings are privately owned. The Commercial Building Energy Audit program is designed to pay up to 75 percent of the cost of an ASHRAE level 1+ energy audit performed on privately owned commercial buildings. The audit cost is set by the building size and ranges from $600 for buildings up to 3,000 square feet up to $2,100 for buildings over 20,000 square feet.

The AEA reports that results of past similar programs indicate average energy savings of roughly 1/3 resulting from economic efficiency investments with average simple paybacks of just over six years. Some of these results can be viewed on the Alaska Energy Efficiency Map at www.akenergyefficiencymap.org.

“Energy efficiency and conservation are the low hanging fruit of efforts to meet sustainable energy goals,” said the AEA. “In Alaska, a defining energy goal is to improve energy efficiency by 15 percent between 2010 and 2020.”

AEA focuses its end use energy efficiency program activities on commercial buildings, public buildings, industrial facilities, and electrical efficiency. It provides both supply-side and demand-side energy efficiency and conservation programs statewide.

Publication date: 8/02/2018

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