U.S. Combined Budgets
Years of Growth in U.S. Efficiency Budgets
Since CEE became the first to collect current-year energy efficiency program budget data, we’ve been excited to showcase the size of the ratepayer-funded energy efficiency industry. Understanding the magnitude of these budgets has been significant in recognizing the impact of the efficiency program industry. In 2005, at the beginning of this effort, when no low income or load management data were yet collected, we surprised ourselves with budgets that quickly added to a billion dollars just for the United States. Not small change, especially as members leveraged those dollars working through CEE.
2006
In our first year of complete measurement, which included ratepayer-funded low income and load management programs, budgets in the United States doubled to $2.6 billion dollars. Electric programs represented 90 percent of the total, with 34 states reporting. Residential programs took the lion’s share of the budget, about thirty percent.
2007
United States efficiency budgets grew again, by 19 percent to $3.1 billion, a new record reported by 35 states. For the first time, CEE measured Canadian budgets, reported by eight provinces at $0.6 billion, for a binational total of $3.7 billion.
2008
Together, budgets reported by program administrators in the United States and Canada now total $4.5 billion, rising from last year by 21 percent. Electric programs represented 87 percent of the total. As the number of states with efficiency programs has grown, so has the number of states with administrators reporting budgets—this rose again to 36 for which we have current data, and more identified too late to include in this year’s report. The number of Canadian provinces reporting remained high at eight. Since CEE started complete data collection in 2006, U.S. budgets have risen by 42 percent and since last year, Canadian budgets have risen by 32 percent.
2007–2008 U.S. Combined Budgets
Total efficiency budgets in the United States reached $3.74 billion, increasing more than 18 percent since 2007, driven by budget growth of 30 percent or more in each of the residential and commercial and industrial sectors.
