We can get there from here: Charting a retrofit roadmap for Maine
Older apartment buildings line the waterfront in Bucksport, Maine. PHOTO: JOHN BILOUS
This article was originally published September 2021. It was last updated June 2023.
By June Donenfeld
MAINE WON’T WAIT, the recent four-year climate action initiative from the Maine Climate Council, aims to put the state on a trajectory to reaching its goals of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050, while also achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
Because Maine’s homes account for nearly 20% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, one of the eight strategies outlined in Maine Won’t Wait is to modernize Maine’s existing residential buildings to make them energy-efficient, smart and cost effective. With 60% of households using fuel oil to heat their homes, we need to switch to cleaner heating and cooling systems to achieve this goal. And given that Maine also has the country’s oldest housing stock and most of our roughly half million homes are energy-inefficient, the Climate Action Plan has also set a goal of doubling the current rate of home weatherization in existing homes.
All this means that Maine needs as many homes as possible to have extensive energy retrofits as soon as possible, although there are some challenges to doing this. Let’s look at some of the biggest obstacles and ways to clear them off the road.
What exactly do energy retrofits entail? They range from the light (think weatherstripping and LED lightbulbs) to the deep energy retrofit, which includes energy conservation measures that improve the overall performance of an existing building so that it becomes so tight, well-insulated and energy efficient it produces as much renewable energy as it consumes annually, resulting in net zero energy bills and significantly reduced carbon emissions. These homes typically include:
Highly insulated attics, basements, and exterior walls
Air-sealed walls, floors, and ceilings
Balanced ventilation system, such as an energy recovery ventilor (ERV) or heat recovery ventilator (HRV)
Smart thermostat
Possibly some form of energy storage
Weather-stripped, well-sealed exterior door frames
Solar panels
Heat pump water heater
LED lighting
Cost
Older homes in a Portland neighborhood. PHOTO: HEATHER CHANDLER
To check off every item on this list is a costly proposition, but there’s some great help available:
Efficiency Maine (EM) offers a wide range of rebates (including air sealing, energy assessments, insulation, heat pumps, and certain water heaters, boilers and more), along with technical information, a network of qualified installers, and financing for energy efficiency upgrades at current rates of 4.99–5.99%. Andy Meyer, senior program manager at EM, reports that they have had their “best year ever for participation” in the rebate program, with rebates for heat pumps doubling.
Federal tax credits of 22–30% are available to homeowners to offset the cost of solar panels, solar water heaters, biomass, geothermal heat pumps, fuel cells that use renewable fuels and small wind electric systems.
The Maine State Housing Authority (MaineHousing) has a Weatherization Program that gives grants to low-income homeowners and renters for home energy efficiency improvements and helps them repair or replace central heating systems.
Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEMs) can be used by borrowers to buy or refinance a home that is already energy efficient or to finance energy-efficient improvements
The National Energy Improvement Fund offers non-bank loans with no income-eligibility restrictions. Qualifying improvements range from air sealing to roofing to solar installations.
Maine-based nonprofit organizations can also help with some aspects of retrofits. Window Dressers provides customized window inserts, and Community Concepts offers weatherization grants and home energy audits to low income households
Future funding & policy initiatives
Maine’s recent weatherization bill, sponsored by state Rep. Chris Kessler of South Portland and passed in the state House, aims to accelerate Maine’s weatherization efforts and qualify more low income households for help with weatherization. The bill would add $25 million in matching funds from the state’s General Fund to the $25 million in Federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds recently earmarked by the Mills administration for weatherization.
Another encouraging development is the recent creation of the Maine Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator within the Efficiency Maine Trust. This “green bank” will use public money to raise private capital, creating a source of funds for financing of green energy solutions. There is also federal legislation moving forward to create a national Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, which would augment funding for Maine’s own Accelerator and increase its impact even further.
Support can be expected from the federal level as well. As part of the recent bipartisan federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), $3.5 billion has been earmarked for the federal Weatherization Assistance program and, if the bill passes, Maine will receive a proportional amount of those funds, expanding its ability to help its many low-income households retrofit their homes—and creating well-paying jobs in the process. Other Federal help could come via the recent and promising Zero-Emission Homes Act of 2021, a bill that aims to “make household electrification easy and affordable through consumer rebates for modern, zero-emission electric appliances, with additional support for low- and moderate-income households.”
The electrical grid
Historic buildings along Water Street in downtown Augusta. PHOTO: WANGKUN JIA
In 2020, almost 80% of Maine’s electricity net generation came from renewable energy resources, but as the state electrifies, if the grid is to meet the projected increased demand, some upgrades will have to happen. Here are ways this is being tackled:
The Maine Public Utilities Commission, its staff and outside consultants will analyze the current system to identify what design, policy and infrastructure changes would make it more flexible and reliable―and how they might be funded.
In April, members of the Maine Utility/Regulatory Reform and Decarbonization Initiative (MURRDI), representing environmental nonprofits, renewable energy developers, electric utilities, consumer advocates, and other energy sector stakeholders, made nine recommendations for modernizing Maine’s grid, including an overarching recommendation that Maine investigate, adopt and implement a holistic, longterm, strategic grid planning process.
If it passes, the IIJA will bring in funds to help update the grid.
Maine’s private sector will play a role, too. One such company is Wiscasset startup Peregrine Turbine Technologies, whose renewable power storage technology just earned it $250,000 through the Maine Clean Energy Innovation Challenge, a joint initiative of the Maine Technology Institute and the Governor’s Energy Office.
Ventilation
Excellent air sealing and insulation greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool a home. But the tighter it gets, the greater the need for a balanced ventilation system to ensure fresh air comes in and stale air goes out, for the sake of occupant health and comfort, as well as building integrity. To support broad use of ventilation systems, the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council recommends developing and implementing a process that provides builders and homeowners with a financial incentive to install them, for, as Executive Director Christy Crocker says, “What we want is a healthy, comfortable home.”
Building a knowledge base
To scale and speed up deep home energy retrofits in Maine and beyond, Naomi Beal, director of passivhausMAINE, created RetrofitMAINE, highlighted in the Fall 2020 issue of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. This open-source initiative aims to develop prototypes, strategies and best practices for deep energy retrofits to Passive House-standard of typical Maine buildings, knowledge that can be used by regional and international partners with similar climates and housing. At the heart of the initiative, Beal says, is a desire “to create equity in how we approach retrofits and our housing supply, especially as Maine’s citizens are the oldest in the nation and thus a vulnerable population.”
Looking outward
Here are examples of what is being done in other places that could serve as models to help enable home energy retrofits in Maine on the broadest possible scale.
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While homebuyers can easily sort and filter home listings for many characteristics, energy features are rarely included. If these homes bore residential energy labels, this would make it easier for prospective buyers to make better-informed decisions—and energy-efficient homes easier to sell. Montpelier, Vermont recently passed a home energy ordinance requiring home sellers to disclose their home’s annual energy costs to real estate agents and prospective buyers, using an online tool that generates an energy label unique to each property showing projected annual energy usage and costs, energy highlights and recommended measures. A label might sound like a small thing, but, says Julia Bassett Schwerin, a longtime green broker and director on the Greater Portland Board of Realtors, “These labels can quickly enable home brokers, sellers and prospective buyers to understand a key element in the value of a what they’re looking to buy, just the way the miles-per-gallon (MPG) stickers do for cars or ENERGY STAR ratings for appliances.”
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Massachusetts offers home energy improvement loans at 0% interest and New Hampshire at 0–2%.Thomas Tutor, Solar Design Team manager at Revision Energy, says that “if the Maine Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator can simply offer slightly better rates [than are currently available here] a much larger portion of homeowners will have the opportunity for cash-flow positive energy transition investments.
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Energiesprong is a Dutch public-private partnership that has pioneered the development of a semi-industrialized net zero energy retrofit package, and while currently being used only for multi-family buildings, many of these technologies could be applied to single-family retrofits, too. The packages typically include a major recladding of the existing home, solar photovoltaics, and a complete swapout of the mechanical system for one that includes heat, hot water, cooling, and ventilation. The facade system consists of a panel, fabricated off-site, that attaches to the exterior of an existing building and includes finishes, doors and windows and is completely ready for onsite installation. A total home makeover can be finished in just 10 days or less, with no disruption to the occupants. These retrofits are affordable, thanks to the favorable terms Energiesprong arranges with banks, and come with a performance warranty of up to 40 years on both the building’s indoor climate and its energy performance.
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For Maine to reach its retrofit goals faster, at lower cost, and with more efficiencies, it will benefit from a thoughtful, well-researched, innovative plan that approaches retrofitting systemically and relies, as Beal describes it, on substantive research now that will “save the later additional costs in time and money that come with a piecemeal, patchwork approach.” We can look to Canada for inspiration and a model. In late June 2021, Efficiency Canada published Canada’s Climate Retrofit Mission, a report that envisions doing building retrofits on a mass scale within a single generation, in ways that will eliminate the use of fossil fuels and free up enough clean electricity resources to power 10 million electric vehicles. The report outlines a policy framework focused on triggering economies of scale and innovations, which will, Efficiency Canada asserts, “reduce costs, increase the speed of the transformation and enhance value.”
So, is the road to statewide retrofits in Maine clear? Not just yet. But with so many minds tackling the problem at so many levels, we can absolutely get there from here.
This article appeared in the Fall/Winter 2021 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!