Retrofit Ramp-Up Awards Announced! $452 million for large-scale energy efficiency retrofits.

On Wednesday, Vice President Biden got a head start on Earth Day by announcing the winners of the Recovery Act “Retrofit Ramp-Up” Awards. 

Congratulations to the winners of the grants, which will help bring energy efficiency retrofit projects to scale in 25 communities across the country!

We are particularly proud of our partners in Portland and Seattle for their $20 million awards, and of our friends in California, Milwaukee, New York, Colorado, and Michigan, among other places.  These cities and states are creating innovative retrofit programs with a commitment to high-quality jobs and broad opportunities for underrepresented workers and contractors.

Watch Vice President Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announce the awards:

Portland Mayor Sam Adams said of the award, "The City of Portland thanks all the public, private and nonprofit partners that joined together to make this achievement possible. Portlanders should be proud of the national recognition that validates Portland as America’s living laboratory for the sustainability economy.”

The Mayor of Seattle, Tim McGinn, reflected on the significance of the grant for his city, "Working with community and industry partners, our city has put together an aggressive and innovative strategy to create green jobs, save energy, and reduce carbon emissions through deep investments in energy efficiency. The Ramp Up award will greatly increase the scale of our programs and enable us to pilot potentially game-changing approaches to financing and delivering energy efficiency projects."

The highly competitive process demonstrates how many of America’s cities are ready to save energy and create jobs.  More than 150 communities submitted applications totaling more than $3.5 billion, for the 25 grants and $452 million available.

Green For All has advocated for this federal funding, also known as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, since our inception.  We are truly excited to see this investment in such worthy projects around the country, another concrete step towards making the clean energy economy a widespread reality in the United States. 

As Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All says, "We have been so proud to partner with some of the winners of the Retrofit Ramp-Up award, many of whom are already showing that smart investment and strong collaboration can produce high-quality jobs for people who desperately need them.  These awards will help bring innovative retrofit programs to scale, creating opportunity for low-income communities and communities of color and blazing a trail for the rest of the country."

Learn more: Read announcements from the White House, from Portland and from Seattle.