The Community Energy Partnership recently selected the Santa Clarita Senior Center to receive numerous energy efficiency upgrades, including five sun tunnels, as part of a large-scale energy efficiency tune-up and demonstration project. The energy-conserving retrofits will save the Senior Center approximately $2,700 annually, plus additional savings that will be tracked over the course of the year.
"We commend the City of Santa Clarita and the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center on their commitment to save energy and their ongoing efforts to address climate change," said Craig Perkins, Executive Director of The Energy Coalition. "The Senior Center installed an additional three tubular skylights, further reducing their energy consumption and utility costs while decreasing their carbon footprint at the same time. We anticipate long-term savings for them as a result of all of these energy efficient upgrades."
The City of Santa Clarita, the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center and the Community Energy Partnership's (CEP) collaboration dates back to 2007, when the CEP presented an energy efficiency workshop for the seniors and distributed energy efficient technology for home installation.
From September 2008 through February 2009 the collaborating agencies provided approximately $10,000 worth of provided energy efficiency retrofits and services. The tubular skylights were installed as part of a CEP Demonstration Project to illustrate the different energy efficiency strategies that residents can implement to save energy and money on utility bills.
The Demonstration Projects, which are located in different regions across Southern California, are intended to educate, inspire, and impress upon the consumer that simple and often inexpensive changes can be made in any home or business, to positively impact the bottom line.
"There are enormous benefits to installing tubular skylights at the Center, such as using natural light in place of electricity, thus significantly reducing energy costs," said Mayor Frank Ferry. "The skylights, coupled with the additional retrofitting the Senior Center received, will drastically reduce the Center's carbon footprint and utility costs."
In the spring, the Community Energy Partnership will present another energy efficiency educational workshop at the Senior Center to highlight and share the benefits of these recent energy efficiency retrofits and to provide additional information on city and utility programs that will further help them with saving energy.
The Community Energy Partnership was formed in 1999 as a collaboration between local governments, utilities and The Energy Coalition. Its mission is to build positive relationships among cities, energy consumers, and their serving utilities and to educate communities about sustainable energy efficiency practices.
For more information on the Community Energy Partnership or the Senior Center's energy-saving retrofits, please contact Oliver Cramer, Environmental Analyst for the City's Environmental Services Division, at (661) 255-4904 or visit santa-clarita.com.
