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DeKalb Technical College will be getting $760,500.00 in federal stimulus money to make half-century old buildings on the Clarkston Campus more energy efficient. The grant is part of more than $60-Million coming to the state of Georgia. A three-person panel of the Industrial Technologies faculty of the soon-to-be-launched Green Technologies Academy (GTA) at DeKalb Tech worked on preparing the grant proposal. “I’m very pleased that our efforts in pursuing this grant will pay on-going dividends to DeKalb Tech in the form of lower utility bills”. says Brian Lovell, GTA Director.
DeKalb Tech President, Dr. Robin Hoffman, who has watched the campus age since coming here as a teacher in the early 70’s says, “These projects will enable the college to retrofit buildings that are nearly 50 years old, thus making them energy efficient, conserving limited resources, and greatly improving the overall teaching and learning environment for our faculty, staff, and students.” The grant funds will be used for a half-dozen different projects, including the installation of high-efficiency lighting fixtures, a lighting control system, a new building automation system, and an innovative system that will monitor equipment and energy use in real-time. The improvements will be installed in four of the five buildings on the Clarkston Campus. The retrofitting of the buildings will also be used as a learning tool for students enrolled in the Building Automation Systems curriculum. The improvements at DeKalb Tech are estimated to save more than $113,000.00 per year. The school will begin to see a return on the investment in less than seven years according to state government research.
Yesterday Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced the approval of 135 energy efficiency projects state wide totaling $63.1 million as part of the State Facilities Retrofit Program. Funding for the projects is being provided by the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The energy efficiency projects for state facilities include lighting system retrofits, HVAC system upgrades, replacement of inefficient chillers and boilers, advanced control systems, utility sub-metering and building tune-ups (also known as commissioning).
“Energy efficiency retrofits will save the state millions of dollars in energy costs year after year and will reduce our energy consumption,” said Governor Perdue. “Many of these projects may go unnoticed to the average Georgian, but the results will be substantial energy savings and a more efficient state government.” Through the Governor’s Energy Challenge, an initiative of Conserve Georgia, Governor Perdue directed state agencies to reduce energy consumption 15 percent below 2007 levels. He also encouraged businesses, individuals, not-for-profits, schools and local governments to meet the same goal. The energy projects announced today will save the state approximately $15.1 million a year in avoided energy costs, resulting in a four year payback on the investment and an energy savings of 976,692 million BTUs (equivalent to the amount of energy consumed by approximately 4,544 housing units in one year). “Georgia is leading by example through the Governor’s commitment to energy efficiency in state government,” said GEFA Executive Director Phil Foil. “Through the State Facilities Retrofit Program, we’ll make significant progress toward meeting the Governor’s 15 percent
energy reduction goal.” All businesses interested in competing for state energy retrofit projects should contact the
Construction Division of the Georgia State Finance Investment Commission at www.gsfic.ga.gov and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia at www.usg.edu/ref
For more information regarding the energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities available through GEFA, please visit www.gefa.org.
DeKalb Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, promotes a student-centered environment for lifelong learning and development, encompassing academic and technical education for employment in a global community. The college has 8 centers of learning in DeKalb, Newton, Rockdale, and Morgan counties. Established in 1961, DeKalb Technical College currently has more than 4,000 students enrolled in diploma or degree programs and more than 9,000 in adult education classes. Academic and Technical programs at DeKalb Tech cover more than 100 different occupations. For more information visit our website at www.dekalbtech.edu.
