The City of Windsor has a new plan to reduce energy usage throughout the entire community that could end up saving the city billions in energy costs.
The community energy plan analyzes energy usage in terms of economic, environmental and security impacts. It includes a number of strategies and bench marks for the city to implement in order to achieve measurable energy savings.
Karina Richters, the City of Windsor's supervisor of environmental sustainability and climate change, says the plan encourages council to consider energy usage when making decisions around the council table.
"In the long term, it's going to be reviewing the plan and how do we bring the plan into other plans, other policies, and how do we look at energy in the decisions we make," says Richters.
Energy Consultant Peter Garforth says the three main areas the city needs to focus on are building efficiencies, growing district energy usage, and neighbourhood planning.
"The walkable neighbourhood, the mixed use neighbourhood, the bike-able neighbourhood, and the more compact urban structure is inherently more efficient," says Garforth.
Part of the plan include taking advantage of granting opportunities from the federal and provincial governments to help create incentives for retrofitting older buildings.
If all of the plan's strategies are implemented, it is estimated the city could save between $8.6-billion to $12.4-billion in energy costs by the year 2041.
