Avon continues sustainability leadership with discussion of updates to Exterior Energy Offset Program
The new amendments would take the program's carbon offset expectations from 2006 to 2024 standards
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The town of Avon continues to work toward its climate action goals with updates to its existing exterior energy efficiency codes. During the Feb. 27 meeting, the Avon Town Council passed the first reading of six out of seven building code amendments, reserving the most complicated section for further review.
In the adopted ordinance, all new gas burning boilers and furnaces have to reach, at minimum, 92% annual fuel utilization efficiency.
The section of the ordinance not voted on at the meeting involved several amendments to the town’s Exterior Energy Offset Program, which covers energy use outside of buildings, including snowmelt, pools, spas and firepits.
“We’re trying to stay up with other resort-type communities,” said Derek Place, chief building official for the town of Avon. Some nearby mountain towns, including Breckenridge and Aspen, recently adopted new codes.
Avon first adopted its Exterior Energy Offset Program in 2015, but the efficiency standards the codes are based on were set in 2006. The new updates would modify the outdated codes.
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“We are so far outdated that we’re not capturing what we should be,” Place said.
The old efficiency criteria, which are currently still in place, require that at least 50% of outdoor energy use is offset by either an onsite renewable energy source or a payable fee-in-lieu based on the cost of installing local solar photovoltaic energy. Partial credit can be earned through the installation of heat pumps or other renewable energy sources, lowering the fee.
In the old system, fees are based on the square footage of the use and the expected natural gas cost of the utility over its lifetime.
A flaw of the old system is that the fee does not align with the cost of offsetting energy use with solar energy. “Meaning you could end up paying way more in a fee than it would cost you to do (solar) PV, or vice versa,” said Kim Schlaepfer, the managing director for Lotus Engineering & Sustainability, the firm consulting on the case. In the updates, the two costs are aligned.
In the new system, fees will be tied to a public calculator, and based on both the efficiency of the system and the cost to install solar to offset consumed energy. The new system also allows for the input of onsite renewable energy sources, such as a heat pump or solar voltaic energy. Fees apply to both residential and commercial properties.
All of the expenditures of the EEOP fund go to the Walking Mountains Science Center, with shy of $24,000 spent in 2023 on home energy assessment rebates and annual fees, which Place called “wise and purposeful uses.”
Though the new calculator may cause fees to increase for properties that do not build in energy efficient offsets, the increased rates are “the social cost of carbon,” Place said.
The eventual goal is for buildings to become so energy efficient there is no need for fees. “It’s nice to have the money to fund these programs, but the ultimate goal is to offset it with renewables,” Place said.
Tentatively, the updated Exterior Energy Offset Program standards will apply to snowmelt between 200 and 6,000 square feet (with no greater area of snowmelt permitted), a number Place said came from Pitkin County’s operations, and felt reasonable for Avon.
The standards will also apply to outdoor spas over 64 square feet, outdoor pools of all sizes, and outdoor gas fireplaces and firepits.
The Exterior Energy Offset Program amendments will return to an Avon Town Council meeting for a first reading in the next month or two, and would begin applying to all projects that apply for building permits beginning 30 days after the second reading is approved.
