Table 1 – Windsor baseline indicators in comparison to Canadian average, Ontario average and International best practise. Source: 2017 Community Energy Plan.
Early on in the development of the Community Energy Plan, it was identified that the residential sector would require comprehensive strategies to address energy and greenhouse gas emissions. It was noted through public engagement that many residents had not undertaken any home energy retrofit program for one or two reasons: 1) insufficient upfront capital to complete the work and 2) uncertainty regarding if they would remain in their homes long enough to see a pay-back. 370 Windsor residents participated in the CEP survey.
The final CEP set a very ambitious target to deep-retrofit 80% of Windsor’s existing homes by 2041 to achieve a 30 to 50% increase in energy efficiency depending on the age and type of home. However, based on the results of the public engagement noted above, it was identified that a program was required that was not like previous governmental retrofit programs.
To overcome these barriers, the CEP strategy proposed developing a Business Case to determine feasibility of reaching the residential target through:
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the creation of an Entity to deliver retrofits standardized by home age and type;
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to team with local contractors, material suppliers and investors to transform the energy retrofit market;
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to use Local Improvement Charge (LIC) financing and standardized pricing approaches to create scale.
In 2017, City Council approved the development of a Windsor Residential Deep Energy Efficiency Retrofit (R-DEER) Business Case to investigate the feasibility of the CEP home retrofit strategy as identified in the CEP (attached as Appendix 3).
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Municipal Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) provided financial support for this work to be undertaken. The application for this funding was approved with CR714/2017, which covers 80% of eligible costs, up to a maximum of $125,000. Garforth International was retained to complete the Business Case. The purpose of the Business Case was to answer the following question: