City Council - Regular Meeting

Edina residents continue to embrace energy-saving projects at such a high rate that the city's Community Climate Action Fund has reached capacity for the third straight year. The city has established a waitlist for residents and businesses interested in incentives for projects such as insulation, heat pumps, solar panels, and home electrification. If any previously approved projects don't move forward, funding may become available for applicants on the waitlist. Since the program launched in 2022, demand has continued to grow. This year alone, the fund has helped support 71 projects in homes, businesses, and nonprofit organizations, generating nearly $1.2 million in private investment, almost 10 times the amount awarded through the program.

When it first launched in 2022, it mostly just focused on solar panel installations and in response to community wants and parts of the Climate Action Plan and increased utility rebates, we've been able to expand it to things like insulation, which is huge at helping folks reduce their heating bills in the winter and their cooling bills in the summer, heat pumps to heat and cool their homes comfortably all in one system, e-bikes even to help folks get around a little more sustainably and maybe not have to get a second car for their family, for example. So it's been really exciting to add to those things that not only help folks reduce their emissions, but make their homes more comfortable and lower their utility bills.

The waitlist does not affect the city's e-bike rebate lottery, which remains open. The next lottery drawing is Tuesday, August 4th. City staff will review the program later this year to explore ways to support even more projects while keeping overall funding levels the same.