Along with land use, transportation, water resources and flood protection, Kane County has added energy efficiency to the planning issues it will analyze in anticipation of the major growth spurt being forecast for the county over the next two decades.
As part of a state program to spur economic development through increased energy efficiencies and reduced demand for more power lines, a $175,000 initiative was announced Thursday to underwrite a 15-month study and develop a strategic plan for meeting the county’s long-term demand for energy.
The Community Energy Cooperative, a non-profit group aimed at helping consumer control energy costs, will spearhead the program. The Chicago-based group is a division of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The U.S. Department of Energy and the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s regional energy program is providing the funding.
In announcing the funding and outlining the program to the Kane Board’s Executive Committee, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said the project is intended to serve as model for energy planning statewide.
“Kane has been given the opportunity to showcase the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy, and I hope the success of this project will make it a model for the rest of the state,” Quinn said.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Quinn last August to head a special task force to analyze the condition and future of the state’s energy infrastructure.
Board Chairman Mike McCoy (R-Aurora) said he welcomed the study. “Kane is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States,” he said.
For all the other long-term planning needs that Kane is trying to meet “future energy planning to accommodate our growth projections has not been undertaken,” he said.
Kathryn Tholin, general manager of the Community Energy Cooperative, said one of the first orders of business will be to form a broad-based energy planning advisory committee.
Tholin said Kane’s mix of land uses–urban, rural and suburban–makes it ideally suited for the study.
“You are really a microcosm of the whole state,” Tholin told county officials.
Hans Detweiler, deputy director of the state Bureau of Energy and Recycling, said Kane was chosen for the study because of what he called “its long, proven record for planning.”
“We know that Kane is where planning has been done well in the past,” Detweiler said.
