Retrofitting: An oil well for every American

Filed under Green Energy, by Stephen Baker on December 17

Obama and his team have made it clear that insulating and patching up buildings will make up part of the stimulus spending. It makes sense. It creates jobs, reduces monthly energy bills and national consumption. And an entire industry is already busy doing it: Rollout should be quick.

I talked to Steve Cowell, ceo of Conservation Services Group, a Westborough (MA)company in the business that operates in 22 states. I wanted details about the speed of the rollout, the cost, how many jobs it can create, and how much energy it can save.

Cowell says the industry could fairly quickly double in New York state, adding 16,000 jobs. The same push in Massachusetts would add 5,000. Doing the math for the rest of the country (which he says is legit), it would come to about 240,000 jobs.

The skills? A lot of people who have lost jobs in building and construction are well suited to this work. They can be up and running after eight weeks of training. “The housing downturn is a good source of labor,” he says.

An average house costs $7,000 to retrofit. This includes insulation, windows, patching leaks, upgrading heating systems. This work, Cowell says, provides an average reduction of 34% in New York (less in more temperate climes, like Oregon). This is low-hanging fruit.

In essence, retrofitting houses is like providing each American with a tiny oil well. But instead of gaining the money through added production, the extra money comes from lower bills.(To be fair, if demand drops and prices fall, those savings fall too.) We all go into the energy business, and the more we save the richer we remain.

Problems? The companies in this industry are small, and many lack access to capital to buy new trucks, train and hire new staff. Cowell says that utilities should finance more of this work and incorporate the investments into energy-saver rates.

Is there something I missed, some reason we shouldn’t be plowing billions of dollars into this effort?

More sources: American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, National Resources Defense Council, Alliance to Save Energy.