Calgary pauses applications for energy improvement loans due to demand

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The uptake for Calgary’s Clear Vitality Enchancment Program has been so sturdy that the town has already paused mortgage purposes so officers can deal with the inflow of requests.

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This system, which launched Tuesday, permits owners to borrow as much as $50,000 for sure vitality enhancements to their properties. This system is exclusive in that the mortgage is repaid by the town’s tax invoice, and the mortgage stays with the house if the proprietor chooses to promote.

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As of Wednesday night, the town posted a discover on its web site saying that accepting purposes was briefly suspended.

“Attributable to numerous CEIP purposes, we’re briefly suspending pre-qualification consumption to offer affordable processing instances,” the message reads.

“We are going to reopen for pre-qualification purposes as soon as the preliminary purposes have been processed.”

Whereas the Metropolis of Calgary has dedicated $15 million to this system, its administration is managed by Alberta Municipalities, which oversees comparable packages in eight different municipalities.

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Steven Ottoni, director of sustainability companies at Alberta Municipalities, stated Calgarians submitted 238 purposes on the primary day, requesting about $7 million in upgrades.

He stated they’ve seen speedy uptake in different markets, however Calgary is above and past what they anticipated.

“The massive distinction, I’d say, is that till now there hasn’t been a program at this degree or dimension,” Ottoni stated.

He stated Calgary deliberately constructed a extra strong program and anticipated the demand. Edmonton has put aside $2 to $3 million for its program.

“It is going past what we truly thought, which is nice as a result of finally what you need to see is robust demand for these sorts of packages,” he stated.

Ottoni described a variety of residence enchancment requests within the pre-applications.

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“I believe folks have ready and are prepared, and will have talked to contractors and gotten quotes on venture prices, as a result of we’re seeing all kinds of venture sizes in these prequalifications.”

He stated as soon as candidates are accepted for pre-qualification, an vitality advisor should full an audit on their residence to search for the tasks that may present the very best vitality financial savings.

Suzie Clifton, proprietor of Inexperienced Wave Consultants, stated she was registered to be a licensed auditor for CEIP on Wednesday. She stated her enterprise performing residence vitality audits has grown lately.

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“Since (the Canada Greener Houses Grant) was launched in 2021, I’ve employed three folks since then,” stated Clifton. We’re only a small firm. So we sort of grew simply from that program. And I assume that we are going to develop much more from this program.”

She stated Calgary’s mortgage program fills many gaps left by the federal residence enchancment grants, which is not going to cowl pure gasoline merchandise.

“We go into so many properties in Calgary the place they’ve a 30-, 40- or 50-year-old furnace, and it is actually not environment friendly,” Clifton stated. “Their payments are very excessive. So there isn’t any incentive for them to improve it, however now there might be in the event that they observe this program.”

The vitality audit measures varied elements all through a house, and checks for drafts with a blower door take a look at. As soon as upgrades are executed, Clifton’s firm will conduct a second audit to measure the effectiveness of the modifications.

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She stated an older Fifties residence might see 60 to 80 gigajoules a yr in vitality financial savings with main upgrades. That is the equal of between 16,000 and 22,000 kilowatt-hours of vitality.

David Kelly, CEO of photo voltaic set up firm SkyFire Vitality, stated his firm has seen a rise in inquiries since Tuesday’s announcement, and he isn’t shocked by the curiosity in this system.

“It should trigger some folks a little bit grief,” he stated of the pause in purposes. “It simply reveals that there’s this pent-up demand.”

He stated he noticed comparable demand when the provincial authorities launched its Vitality Financial savings Program for Enterprise in 2020. Whereas cash continues to be obtainable for that program, he stated the portion put aside particularly for photo voltaic tasks is gone inside a number of weeks.

“Given our vitality costs in the present day too, it is no surprise,” Kelly stated. “The February regulated charge choice is over 30 cents for many retailers.”

brthomas@postmedia.com
Twitter: @brodie_thomas