In 2022, we marked our 40th year of providing incentives and programs to use energy more efficiently.
Matthew and Serenity Stull became the first beneficiaries of a UEC program to help members replace older manufactured homes with energy-efficient models (see page 23). The Stulls replaced their 1984 doublewide with a Northwest Energy Efficient Manufactured (NEEM) Housing Certified Home.
The source of UEC’s funding is a loan from USDA’s Rural Energy Savings Program, while Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) provided a supplemental “gap” loan that is fully forgivable if the occupant stays 10 years.
In 4 years, our Energy Saver Loan Program has surpassed $1.4 million in low-interest loans to members for efficiency measures ranging from heat pumps and windows to insulation.
The Scientific Irrigation Scheduling program assisted 17 irrigators in reducing water usage by 8,761 acre-feet and produced 7,810,880 kWh savings on nearly 40,000 acres. That equals nearly 3 billion gallons of water and the same energy needed to supply 565 all-electric homes for 1 year.
UEC’s Net Metering program saw explosive growth in 2022. Nearly 50 residential solar arrays are now connected to the UEC system, representing one-half of 1% of our total residential membership. Solar arrays have doubled on the UEC system in the past 2 years; the largest in 2022 was installed by the Morrow County government building in Irrigon, a 23.4-kilowatt system capable of producing about 34,000 kWh of energy each year.