LEAP - Local Energy Assistance Program

Local Energy developed the Local Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) to help reduce the burden of high utility bills on low-income residents and nonprofit organizations in Santa Fe.

LEAP seeks to achieve this goal by providing products and services designed to reduce energy bills. Examples of a typical LEAP award would include energy efficiency measures such as upgraded insulation and high-efficiency lighting, but also installation of systems that use locally available energy resources like solar, wind, and biomass.

In keeping with Local Energy's mission to help the Santa Fe community become more self-reliant in energy, the LEAP program is carried out in partnership with local energy suppliers. Dankoff Solar Products provided a $10,000 donation of solar-heating equipment to start the program. Cedar Mountain Solar, another Local Energy member company, has agreed to donate solar design and installation services to LEAP award recipients.

LEAP is very different from the federal government's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in that most LIHEAP funding goes toward one-time payments of utility bills. Under our LEAP program, award money goes toward a community investment that reduces future utility bills. Thus the LEAP program redirects utility dollars towards local energy companies that are helping the Santa Fe community create increasing energy self-reliance. Creating this community-based energy self-reliance is central to the mission of Local Energy.

With the assistance of our Santa Fe partners and the McCune Foundation, Saint Elizabeth Shelter has received the first LEAP award for the purpose of converting domestic hot water heating for the eight affordable housing units at Sonrisa Apartments in southwest Santa Fe. This modification from natural gas to solar energy will provide significant savings to Saint Elizabeth Shelter by reducing monthly hot-water heating bills up to 75%. These savings can enhance the affordability for all residents of St. Elizabeth housing far into the future as the price of natural gas increases. It will help the Shelter to increase their services to homeless individuals and families in Santa Fe and the surrounding rural communities.

If you are interested being a LEAP volunteer for the Sonrisa project or others in the future, contact Kristen at Local Energy at 982-9800. For information on the programs at St. Elizabeth Shelter contact Charee Lord, Executive Director, at 982-6611. To see all the local business and foundations that support the LEAP program, please click here.