ICF Consulting Recommends Rebuilding U.S. Gulf Coast to Energy-Efficient Standards in Wake of Hurricanes

ICF Consulting released an issue paper titled, Rebuilding After Katrina: Smart Energy Choices, analyzing energy efficiency rebuild options for the reconstruction of hundreds of thousands of homes in the U.S. Gulf Coast region destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In the analysis, ICF Consulting experts modeled different levels of energy efficiency using DOE-2 software, for 60,000 separate runs for a wide variety of single family homes in two climate zones. They then compared the impacts of a mass reconstruction built to minimum building codes (as a baseline for comparison) versus four increasingly more energy-efficient standards.

The ICF Consulting analysis demonstrates the importance of including energy efficiency criteria in any rebuild specifications. Two scenarios in particular showed promise. First, a “quick payback” scenario illustrates that a US$200 million incremental investment in energy efficiency in 310,000 destroyed homes will pay for itself in just over two years. In an even more attractive, long-term investment scenario, rebuilding those homes to the 2006 ENERGY STAR scenario will have a payback of just 7.5 years and will save nearly $2.5 billion in the following 20 years if energy prices stay constant. If energy prices rise, the savings will be even higher. With a 30-year mortgage, homeowners immediately receive a net positive cash flow from energy savings. In addition, homeowners will benefit from more comfortable homes.

“During this time of rapid reconstruction, we felt it was important to do some thorough analysis to provide policymakers, builders, and homeowners with information so that they can make the right decisions now about energy efficiency,” says Jeanne Townend, an ICF Consulting senior vice president who manages the firm’s energy and resources work.

“In addition to the benefits to homeowners, the annual electricity savings of the ENERGY STAR scenario would avoid power demands equivalent to the peak output of one nuclear plant serving Hartsville, South Carolina, and reduce the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions equal to removing 51,221 cars from the road. In addition, this preliminary analysis models only the impacts on single-family homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. When you include the other hurricanes, multi-family homes, and the commercial sector, the financial and resource impacts from choosing energy efficiency will be staggering. ICF Consulting plans to extend its analysis to these sectors in a future release,” says Ms. Townend.

Concurrent with the disastrous hurricane are recent winds of change in building policies aimed at saving energy resources. In September 2005, the new Energy Policy Act was passed by Congress into law while the International Code Council (ICC), the agency setting the standards for U.S. buildings, upgraded its International Energy Conservation Code (IECC 2006) codes for new homes. Earlier this month, the government-sponsored ENERGY STAR program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amended its guidelines for new homes.

“Fortunately, all the policies for a ‘right rebuild’ are in place,” adds Ms. Townend. Download the full report at http://www.icfconsulting.com/homerebuild.

About ICF Consulting
ICF Consulting (www.icfconsulting.com) is a leading management, technology, and policy consulting firm. Drawing upon extensive industry knowledge, distinguished professionals, and innovative analytics, the firm develops solutions to complex defense, homeland security, social program, energy, environment, and transportation issues. ICF Consulting’s approach to these issues is strengthened by its expertise in information technology, organizational improvement, research and evaluation, program management, and communications. Since 1969, ICF Consulting has been serving major corporations, government at all levels, and multinational institutions. More than 1,500 employees serve these clients in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.