Members of Lexington’s City Council heard an annual update on the city’s energy improvement fund Tuesday evening.
The fund was created in 2010 to use the saved money from energy efficiency programs to invest in other projects.
James Bush is the city’s section leader on energy initiatives. He said on individual buildings, they’re able to save around 25 percent of costs on electric lighting and solar projects. But city-wide, the savings aren’t enough to offset the cost of Lexington’s growth.
“We continue to grow at a larger rate than we address individual buildings, and as a fraction of the $100,000 to $200,000 investment we've been making, that's less than a half-percent of our annual spend on utilities,” Bush said.
The fund itself focuses on cost reduction, adding installments to already-existing buildings around the city. But Bush also suggested officials realign their future energy goals to focus on renewable power sources as part of new construction projects as Lexington continues to grow.
“Right now, early analysis, we are anticipating we could get a couple hundred (kilowatts) of power generation on our roofs, but that usable space will, as that gets installed, things will slow down,” Bush said. “And we would need a different approach.”
Bush also suggested the city work with utility companies to install renewable energy sources on unused land.
