Clean Energy Works Portland℠ is a project of the City of Portland, in collaboration with Multnomah County, ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia, Energy Trust of Oregon, NW Natural, Pacific Power, Portland General Electric, Portland Development Commission, Portland Housing Bureau, Home Performance Contractors Guild of Oregon, Work Systems, Inc., and Green For All. This pilot is intended to enable homeowners to access low-interest, long-term financing for quick, easy and affordable investments in energy efficiency. Its 500-home pilot phase is underway and is expected to be completed by Fall 2010.

1. Reduce carbon emissions, as part of the regional Climate Action Plan
2. Create quality, career green jobs
3. Enable Portlanders to save energy without upfront costs
4. Keep housing affordable in the long run

The intent is to break down the barriers to widespread adoption of energy efficiency so that we can create jobs, help Portlanders save energy and move the region toward significant reductions in carbon emissions.

Homes with the greatest potential for energy savings will be given priority for inclusion in the pilot.This pilot is small and we cannot enroll everyone who may be interested and eligible. The City of Portland recently was awarded $20 million from the US Department of Energy to take Clean Energy Works to scale beyond Portland. We expect to be able to serve thousands more participants in metro and rural Oregon with this funding. Stay tuned for more details about Clean Energy Works Oregon!

Eligibility rules:

• Participants own and live in the home to be retrofitted through Clean Energy Works Portland℠
• Participating homes are located within the City of Portland
• Participating homes are site-built, single-family dwellings
• Participating homes are not mobile or manufactured homes
• Participating homes are heated with electricity from Pacific Power or Portland General Electric or with natural gas from NW Natural.
• Participating homes were built before 1993
• Participating homes are not more than 4,500 square feet in size
• Participating homes are not on any “historic registry”
• Participating homeowners will commit to and are ready and willing to make upgrades in the next 60-90 days
• Participating homeowners are not participating in another Energy Trust of Oregon program
• Participating homeowners authorize Clean Energy Works Portland to access their utility usage and payment history, and to perform a credit check

1. Homeowners sign up for a home energy assessment through www.cleanenergyworksportland.org/apply.
2. Clean Energy Works Portland℠ will schedule the home energy assessment to be performed by a certified Building Performance Institute contractor and provide an “Energy Advocate” to explain recommended measures and financing options, and help the homeowner through the installation process. 
3. Homeowners will choose which options best meet their needs.*
4. In coordination with the Energy Advocate, the contractor will then arrange to implement the energy efficiency improvements made.
5. Homeowners pay nothing up front. The cost of improvements is financed through a 20-year loan that is repaid in small amounts on the homeowners monthly utility bill.

* Energy savings, or the specific amount thereof, will vary based on individual circumstances, and no actual energy savings are promised or guaranteed by any of the partners involved with Clean Energy Works Portland℠.

Long term, all improvements from insulation to space heat to windows to solar photovoltaics will be available. However, for the pilot the focus will be on key weatherization efforts like insulation, air sealing and duct sealing, as well as space heating (furnaces and heat pumps) and hot water upgrades.  

5.99% on weatherization, space heating and water heating upgrades
3.99% for all upgrades for income-qualified participants
Loans have 20 year terms

To date, the average loan amount is $10,700.

The final phase of the Clean Energy Works Portland pilot program is called Changing the Climate in Cully (link to community.php). We are trying a new approach to getting the word out about making easy and affordable investments in home energy improvements.

Changing the Climate in Cully is a neighborhood organizing project of Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good (MACG), in partnership with Cully Association of Neighbors (CAN), Sierra Club, Native American Family and Youth Center (NAYA), Verde Inc., St. Charles Catholic Church, Friends of Trees, and the Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA).

Clean Energy Works Portland has partnered with the MACG team to bring low-interest, long-term financing for home energy improvements to Cully residents. MACG chose the Cully neighborhood because the neighborhood includes many homes eligible for the upgrades and enough homeowners who could benefit. Cully has a high percentage of homeowners who are above the income guidelines for county weatherization assistance, but who may not be able to afford direct individual financing — the "middle bracket" that often gets missed in these types of programs. The key MACG institution in Cully is St. Charles Catholic Church, and several other MACG institutions have significant ties to the area, including the Redeemer Lutheran Church/Enterbeing community and St. Andrew Catholic Church.

Changing the Climate in Cully organizers will be coming to the neighborhood in July and August to spread the word about Clean Energy Works Portland and to help Cully neighbors sign up to participate.

Clean Energy Works Portland program partner Green For All provided technical assistance in developing this phase of the pilot. Green For All has found that this kind of community-based outreach can effectively and rapidly reach many people with information about the benefits of home energy improvements and the process of getting them done. Community-based outreach delivers information through face-to-face interactions with trusted community members. It generates momentum and enthusiasm by emphasizing the fact that others in the neighborhood are making these same kinds of improvements to their homes. For more information about creating demand for home energy improvements, we suggest reading Green For All’s recently published best practice brief, Increasing Demand for Home Retrofits: Community-Based Outreach and Mobilization.