County Receives $7.6 Million Federal Energy Efficiency Grant

Hillsborough County has been notified that it will receive $7,665,200 in federal stimulus funds to undertake energy efficiency and conservation projects on its facilities and vehicles. The award is the largest energy grant awarded to a County government in Florida to date. The funding comes from $2.7 billion set aside as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions by governments around the nation.

The County plans to use the grant money on the following improvement projects: a solar photovoltaic system on the original County Courthouse on Pierce Street, $1.307 million energy-saving lighting retrofit to two County warehouse buildings on Falkenburg Road, $300,000 improvements to the County’s wastewater sludge de-watering facility which will increase its energy and water-use efficiency and reduce tonnage of sludge that has to be transported, $2.45 million energy-saving lighting retrofit for Orient Road Jail, $700,000 construction of a new electric transmission line from the County’s Resource Recovery Facility to the Central Hillsborough Water Treatment Plant on Falkenburg Road, which will allow the Resource Recovery Facility to provide the power needed to run the Plant, $1.25 million a solar photovoltaic system on the Tax Collector building on Falkenburg Road, $218,000, which will help generate power for the building an energy efficiency monitoring system for the County’s fleet vehicles and new fuel monitoring and automation system, $690,000 energy-saving lighting retrofits at various County-owned sports complexes, $750,000

"Hillsborough County is committed to improving its energy efficiency,” said Pat Bean, Hillsborough County Administrator. “These projects will save our taxpayers money, create new jobs in our County and help improve the environment."

The stimulus funds are block grants administered by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE will require grant recipients to report on the number of jobs created or retained, energy saved, renewable energy capacity installed, greenhouse gas emissions reduced, and funds leveraged as a result of the grant.

For more information on the federal energy efficiency and conservation block grant program, visit: www.eecbg.energy.gov/.