Asheville, North Carolina

the utility’s pledge to support the community’s efforts towards 100-percent renewable energy. “Duke Energy Progress is committed to work- ing with the County and City to help accom- plish renewable energy goals through improv- ing Duke Energy initiatives, improving access to technologies, and raising awareness of the various smart energy opportunities that are available,” Weaver says. “But, there’s a lot more to do. I think that we’re going to have to lean in on our utility to provide the community additional renewable resources and renewable energy to help meet our goal. And we’re just at the beginning stages.” In addition, the City, County and the utility partnered with the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, which helped identify peak energy use times, ultimately determining, via the data, that it was the result of energy usage from residents’ homes. “Asheville has an extreme- ly old building stock here, which is resulting in peak energy demand in the early morning hours during the winter, when people are first waking up, heating their homes, and taking hot showers,” Weaver explains. With that information in hand, the EITF created the Blue Horizons Project to help enlist public support and provide easy access to resources designed to help Asheville’s residents save energy and take an active part in creating a sustainable future for the City. Over the past 10 years, Lime Energy has helped over 150,000 small businesses save more than $1 billion in energy costs with affordable energy-saving upgrades. Learn more about out solutions at www.lime-energy.com Lime saves small businessesmoney in Asheville and across the country. Turn-key Energy Efficiency No Upfront Costs Guaranteed Savings