Published: May 06, 2008 05:29 pm         

Energy report is complete; next move is up to community leaders

The Crossville Energy and Sustainability Initiative has finished its work, and now it's up to the community to implement the projects and ideas identified during the six-week project to move the city of Crossville and Cumberland County toward energy efficiency.

The results of the project were presented Tuesday night at Stone Memorial High School.

"We've all worked hard and put a lot of time and effort into this report," said Edward J. Jepson, assistant professor at the University of Tennessee. "This is only a first step, remember. Now, the work starts."

The CESI was a partnership of the city of Crossville, the University of Tennessee Masters of Science in Planning program and local groups and organizations. The students researched Crossville's energy use and demographic information, and worked with community members to develop project ideas that would help the city, area businesses and residents reduce their energy use.

Crossville is a growing city, increasing in population by 20.7 percent since 2000. The report said the demand for energy can be expected to increase as the local population and economy continue to grow.

Currently, much of the energy needs of the city is met by non-renewable fossil fuels, particularly coal. The total cost of Crossville's energy in 2007 was $57 million, or $5,240 per person. The greatest users of energy were residential households and local industry. About $19 million is spent annually on gasoline.

Jepson noted only a 30 percent reduction in energy costs was needed to "break even."

"If we cut that 30 percent, those unused dollars would ripple through the economy," Jepson explained. "This is the point at which the economic benefit equals energy spending."

The report notes there is a great deal of new construction and development taking place in the community, providing many opportunities for employing new energy efficient building designs and technology.

But, many of the residents are lower income residents, with a median household income of $25,100, compared to the state median household income of $38,874. About 24 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

"Crossville has a high percentage of lower income residents who might not have the necessary economic resources to easily invest in energy efficient technologies on their own," the report said.

Much of the final report focuses on the project ideas identified by community members during the three workshops. Projects were evaluated on the basis of cost, ease of implementation and estimated time frame.

"We identified projects you can get moving on right away," Jepson said. Those were a city kick-off celebrating energy audits of municipal buildings, education of government employees on energy efficient technologies and techniques and encouraging car pooling.

The team also identified project themes.

"Are there any recurring themes?" Jepson asked. "You guys seem to be into these things: recycling, doing energy audits and doing something about our water. The community, which you are representatives of, these are the things you are caught up on."

These themes could be used to guide the city in policies and programs beyond specific project ideas.

The report was made available at the meeting, but it is also available for download on the city of Crossville Web site, www.crossvilletn.gov/.

The CESI is being supported by the Crossville Chronicle, Crossville Housing Authority, Cumberland Business Incubator, Cumberland County Board of Education, Cumberland Sustainable Energy Association, First National Bank of Tennessee, Veolia Water and Volunteer Energy Cooperative.