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Community Energy Strategic Planning and the CESP Academy Webinar

May 12, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Technical Assistance Program (TAP) presented a Webinar titled Community Energy Strategic Planning and the CESP Academy on May 12, 2011. This Webinar explained the value of Community Energy Strategic Planning (CESP) at both county- and city-wide levels, with a focus on common barriers to program implementation and strategies that communities can use to implement renewable energy strategies and realize significant energy savings.

In addition to sharing case studies of successful programs, the Webinar also provided information about the CESP Academy—a free source of assistance that can provide customized support for your community's needs.

Presentations

This webinar featured one presentation:

About the Presenters

  • Brian Levite, a principal at PRIZIM Inc., specializes in strategic energy efficiency and renewable energy planning and program design. He works to help organizations address their energy challenges at the federal, state, and local government level, and has also worked with major corporations, school systems, hospitals, and residential home builders.

  • Alexander Dane is a project leader at NREL, where he focuses on sustainable and strategic energy planning at the local level. He has organized the CESP Academy, which will begin helping local communities in the summer of 2011, and has helped more than 150 communities across the country as part of TAP.

  • Susanna Sutherland is the program manager for sustainability for the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. Her presentation focused on the phases of energy development, including community involvement, goods and services the city could provide, infrastructure, sustainable growth, and transportation.

  • Najib Salehi is the energy manager and Andrea McGimsey is a supervisor for Loudoun County, Virginia. Together they presented on the innovative clean energy program the county has recently implemented. During their presentation, they discussed setting energy strategy goals that can help develop a county-wide energy strategy that focuses on finding energy to serve a growing population, and that encourages job growth.

Background Information

You can learn more or apply at the academy's home page.