Delaware’s Sustainable Energy Utility is offering another incentive for potential developers and homebuyers in Delaware’s three new Downtown Development Districts.
The organization is offering to pay 50 percent of the cost of an energy audit in homes and mixed-used development buildings in each of the designated areas in Dover, Seaford and Wilmington. SEU will also pay up to 75 percent of the cost of making improvements to make homes and businesses more energy efficient.
Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Utility Tony DePrima says the decision to offer the incentive within the Downtown Development Districts was an easy one.
“They were designated geographic areas, they were easy for us to identify, and if we can support the governor’s efforts in making downtowns more viable, we think energy efficiency is a part of that,” he says.
DePrima adds that the benefits of weatherization are obvious.
“Energy efficiency is probably the best single way you can invest dollars into your home to save utility costs and energy,” he says. “And then there’s all the other benefits that come with that, like reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”
Governor Markell’s Downtown District Plan was passed by the General Assembly last year. The program aims to spur development in Delaware towns and cities by offering incentives, including up to 20 percent of capital construction costs for business or residential projects within these districts.