A public forum on the recently-released draft of the Kane County 2040 Energy Plan is set for March 8 at the county Government Center, in Geneva. The open house-style forum is scheduled to run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of Building A, 719 S. Batavia Ave. In addition to a presentation of the draft energy plan representatives of various energy organizations and providers in Kane County are scheduled to host informational displays.
The complete draft plan as well as a one-page summary is available at http://www.countyofkane.org/Pages/kc2040ep.aspx. Public comment on the draft plan is being accepted through March 11.
As outlined Feb. 16 for the Energy and Environmental Committee on Feb. 16, the Kane County 2040 Energy Plan (KC2040EP) is an update of a plan completed in 2005 that focused on how projected growth would impact electricity consumption in the county. The 2040 update has been expanded to include natural gas consumption data and municipal electric utilities data from St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia. The development of the KC2040EP is funded through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and includes analysis of countywide energy consumption and strategies for reducing consumption over the next 30 years.
Information and key concepts included in the plan are designed to assist readers in understanding the data and identifying appropriate strategies at the county, municipal, household and business level.
Rising energy consumption and costs elicit additional economic and environmental concerns for municipalities, businesses, households and other consumers. In addition, electricity and natural gas consumption in buildings is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the nation. The KC2040EP, therefore, addresses energy production and consumption as a growth management issue with the inclusion of 10 strategies designed to reduce energy costs and consumption that involve existing, readily-available technologies and simple changes in our everyday energy habits. Three strategic scenarios - conservative, moderate and aggressive - outlined in the plan illustrate the potential energy and cost savings, depending on the level of implementation. According to the draft, Kane County consumers have the potential to save up to $3.4 billion between now and 2040, and to reduce energy consumption by as much as 272 billion kBtu over the next thirty years.
Data used to prepare the plan was provided by ComEd electric utility, Nicor Gas Company, and the municipal electric utilities of the Cities of Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles. The draft was prepared by CNT Energy, a division of the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology. (www.cntenergy.org)
