Thanks to a creative federal, state and private business partnership, over 30 convenience stores in Georgia now have almost half a million dollars’ worth of energy efficient lighting, at no up front cost to the store owners.

The US Department of Energy recently featured an update on this unique arrangement, which involves GEFA (Georgia Environmental Finance Authority), GACS (Georgia Association of Convenience Stores), and Outlaw Consulting.  Thanks to economic stimulus funds, Outlaw and GACS secured a $450,000 grant administered by GEFA to provide lighting retrofitting to convenience stores using a revolving fund.  The lighting retrofitting work was performed by Energy & Environment.

Working with GACS, stores applied and were evaluated for the potential payback of their lighting retrofitting projects.  Store owners only needed to pay back to the fund the savings realized from the retrofitting process within 18 months of the installation.  These payments will be used to do additional projects resulting in approximately $1 million in projects being done by the program in total.

While designing lighting systems for the fund, Energy & Environment worked with a manufacturer to design a custom induction retrofit solution for gas station canopy lights. As the Department of Energy recognized, not only has the fund “resulted in significant savings in energy from the projects themselves, but the fund was the catalyst for the development of this new lighting solution that will continue to evolve in the future.”

Since its inception, the fund has retrofitted over 30 convenience store locations, including interior lighting (generally T12 to T8 conversions), cooler door lighting (generally with light-emitting diode or LED lights), and outdoor LED and induction canopy lighting. Convenience store owners are delighted with the results. John Hubert, owner of Chu’s Convenience stores in Savannah, said, “There is a noticeable upgrade in the brightness and color of lighting; the LED cooler lights pop out at you. Customers and staff noticed a difference even driving up the street in the canopy lights.” Keith Mangam of Zach’s Food Rack commented, “I was surprised by the savings. The lights are brighter than before, with lower wattage, and my bills have decreased.”

To see the Department of Energy article: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/news_detail.html?news_id=17965

To look at photographs of some sights, and a GACS review: http://www.energyandenvironment.com/news.html