Building additions will also lower energy costs.

[view:node_ad=5]The Community Energy Partnership recently selected the Santa
Clarita Senior Center to receive numerous energy efficiency upgrades, including
five sun tunnels, as part of a large-scale energy efficiency tune-up and
demonstration project.

The energy-conserving retrofits will save the Senior
Center approximately $2,700
annually, plus additional savings that will be tracked over the course of the
year.

"We commend the City of Santa Clarita
and the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center on their commitment to save energy
and their ongoing efforts to address climate change," said Craig Perkins,
Executive Director of The Energy Coalition. "The Senior
Center installed an additional
three tubular skylights, further reducing their energy consumption and utility
costs while decreasing their carbon footprint at the same time. We anticipate
long-term savings for them as a result of all of these energy efficient
upgrades."

The City of Santa Clarita,
the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center and the Community Energy Partnership's
(CEP) collaboration dates back to 2007, when the CEP presented an energy
efficiency workshop for the seniors and distributed energy efficient technology
for home installation.

From September 2008 through February 2009 the collaborating
agencies provided approximately $10,000 worth of provided energy efficiency
retrofits and services. The tubular skylights were installed as part of a CEP
Demonstration Project to illustrate the different energy efficiency strategies
that residents can implement to save energy and money on utility bills.

The Demonstration Projects, which are located in different
regions across Southern California, are intended to
educate, inspire, and impress upon the consumer that simple and often
inexpensive changes can be made in any home or business, to positively impact
the bottom line.

"There are enormous benefits to installing tubular skylights
at the Center, such as using natural light in place of electricity, thus
significantly reducing energy costs," said Mayor Frank Ferry. "The skylights,
coupled with the additional retrofitting the Senior
Center received, will drastically
reduce the Center's carbon footprint and utility costs."

In the spring, the Community Energy Partnership will present
another energy efficiency educational workshop at the Senior
Center to highlight and share the
benefits of these recent energy efficiency retrofits and to provide additional
information on city and utility programs that will further help them with
saving energy.

The Community Energy Partnership was formed in 1999 as a
collaboration between local governments, utilities and The Energy Coalition.
Its mission is to build positive relationships among cities, energy consumers,
and their serving utilities and to educate communities about sustainable energy
efficiency practices.

For more information on the Community Energy Partnership or
the Senior Center's
energy-saving retrofits, please contact Oliver Cramer, Environmental Analyst
for the City's Environmental Services Division, at (661) 255-4904 or visit
santa-clarita.com.