Phil Castle, The Business Times

Tim Haggerty recognizes the potential connections among Grand Valley businesses, a program offering financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and companies providing energy services.

“I just see so many things that could start coming together. It could end up being a win-win,” said Haggerty, co-owner of Haggerty Brothers Consulting & Exploration in Grand Junction.

Haggerty said he’s worked with one of the companies he has in mind in World Energy Innovations, an Ohio-based firm that provides a range of services to help customers reduce energy use and emissions while meeting sustainability goals. “They need to be a considered player.”

Haggerty organized an online meeting to discuss the possibilities.
The participants included Tracy Phillips, director of the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program in Colorado, and Joe Soldano, vice president of sales and marketing at World Energy Innovations (WEI).

The meeting followed an online presentation hosted by the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce in which Phillips provided an overview of the C-PACE program. 

The program offers the owners of eligible commercial and industrial buildings up to 100 percent financing for renewable energy, energy efficiency and water conservation projects,. Financing is available for agricultural properties as well as industrial and retail properties, hotels, multi-family housing, offices and buildings used by nonprofit organizations. Private providers offer capital with competitive interest rates and payment terms of up to 25 years.

Payments are collected as part of the county property tax assessment process.

Financing is available through C-PACE for nearly any project that results in utility cost savings. That includes solar panels and other forms of renewable energy. That also includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems as well as insulation, lighting, roofing and water pumps. 

Although not required, savings realized through renewable energy and efficiency improvements often exceed the assessments, Phillips said.

Mesa County Commissioners voted in April to opt into the program. While no projects yet have been approved in the county, Phillips said, “There’s plenty of interest.”

Haggerty said the consulting firm he operates with his brother, Bill, helps clients open and expand businesses as well as transition into retirement. 

The firm also serves as a kind of hub, Tim Haggerty said, in connecting businesses with available resources — including programs as well as other businesses.

He said he’s eager to promote not only the resources available through the C-PACE program, but also companies that provide energy efficiency services. World Energy Innovations could be among the links between the program and participating businesses.

Haggerty said he worked with WEI when he was a plant director for Ocean Spray and managed the opening of a production and bottling facility in Pennsylvania.

WEI designed and installed energy systems in the nearly 300,000 square foot facility, using a modular system to pasteurize juice. WEI also incorporated low grade heat captured from cooling towers into the pressurized Bigfoot heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to heat the building in winter without burning natural gas. The plant was the first of its kind in the United States to run entirely on hot water instead of steam.

Soldano said the systems save Ocean Spray $1.3 million annually in lower utility costs, a savings WEI guarantees.

Soldano described the more than 40-year-old WEI as a clean technology company that offers energy conservation measures for commercial, industrial and health care facilities as well as other spaces.

The company also will sell energy efficiency as a service, he said, charging an annual fee to achieve guaranteed performance metrics. WEI can manage the systems, allowing companies to allocate capital for other uses.

In addition to Ocean Spray, WEI has worked with many large companies, including Ford, General Motors and Goodyear. 

WEI also worked with Hero MotoCorp, a motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in India, on an assembly plant that includes a  wall of vegetation that filters indoor air. In addition, the facility produces more water than it uses, Soldano said.

WEI works with customers to not only reduce energy and water use, but also help them become carbon-neutral operations, he said. That’s become an objective for a growing number of companies.

Soldano said he sees a potential fit for his company’s services with the C-PACE program in Colorado. “It all comes down to a project.”

Phillips encouraged Soldano to sign up WEI as one of the registered contractors offering services through the C-PACE program. Phillips said he can’t recommend a specific contractor for a project, but refers program participants to the list of contractors.

In the case of WEI, he said it could help that financing is available to cover anything related to energy efficiency projects, including engineering services and energy audits.

Soldano said it’s important for customers to understand WEI will monitor its projects and guarantees their operating performance. “We want companies to hold us accountable,” he said. “That, along with innovative proven technologies, is what differentiates WEI.”

For more information about the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program, log on to https://copace.com. For additional information about World Energy Innovations, visit https://worldenergyinnovations.com. Reach Tim Haggerty by email at info@timothyhaggerty.com.