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Tool to Help Municipalities Adopt Renewable Energies
The Rocky Mountain Institute developed the Community Energy Opportunity Finder in order to help your community realize the benefits of wise energy use.
A famed energy consulting group has launched an internet tool to demonstrate
how renewable energy can be an integral part of economic development.
The Rocky Mountain Institute says its ‘http://finder.rmi.org/">Community
Energy Opportunity Finder’ will determine a community's “best bets for
energy solutions that benefit the local economy, the community and the environment.”
The Energy Finder
A Great Tool for Communities http://finder.rmi.org/">
The Community Energy Opportunity Finder is an interactive tool that
will help you determine your community's best bets for energy solutions
that benefit the local economy, the community, and the environment.
The Finder helps you collect information on your community's energy
use, and then demonstrates the potential energy savings, dollar savings
and job creation from energy efficiency programs.
U.S. Energy Consumption by Source, 2001
Source: Energy Information Administration, 2001
The Community Energy Opportunity Finder compiles information
on energy use in any community, and then demonstrates the potential energy
savings, cost savings, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and job creation
from energy efficiency programs and provides an overview of the green power
sources that are available.
It also contains case studies on programs that
have been successful in other U.S. communities, sources of advice and ideas
for funding energy projects.
Municipalities create jobs and a tax base by attracting industry, and often
offer tax breaks to new companies. The new entities then compete with existing
firms for resources and increase infrastructure costs, which often puts
the community into a worse state than before it attracted the new investments.
The Finder is designed to be used by economic development advocates, business
owners who want to reduce operating costs, communities that want to ensure
their economic development is compatible with sustainable development principles
and renewable energy advocates.
“Renewable energy is an important piece of a comprehensive and self-reliant
community energy plan,” says the site. “When it becomes necessary to increase
the energy supply or if a community wants to replace polluting energy sources
with clean, renewable ones, community leaders can consider developing the
local solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydropower resource potential.”
The Community Energy Opportunity Finder was developed byRocky
Mountain Institute staff with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and support from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, Renewable Energy Policy Project, American Wind Energy
Association, and more than 50 others.
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