When people think of states with lighting rebates, the first states that usually come to mind are states that are always in the media for energy efficiency, like California and Massachusetts, but there are many other states where significant rebates are available. In each edition of BriteSwitch's News, we'll focus on a state and learn about rebate opportunities in that area.

 

This edition, we'll look at Minnesota, one of the states at the forefront of lighting rebates. In fact, Xcel Energy of Minnesota started their first lighting rebates as far back as 1985. Now 78% of zip codes in Minnesota potentially qualify for some form of lighting rebate. The programs in Minnesota are also quite sizeable; for example, one utility offers a $75 rebate per fixture when upgrading from a 400W HID system to an efficient high bay fluorescent system.

 

Imagine a facility with (500) 400W HID lamps that they upgrade to 4 lamp T5HO fixtures. Just the upgrade alone would save the company $37,966 in energy costs each year, giving them a simple payback of 2.34 years. But thanks available rebates, they would be eligible to get $37,500 in "free" money. That would reduce the simple payback of the project to 1.36 years!* That's why customers in Minnesota are eagerly upgrading to more energy efficient programs and taking advantage of all these programs.

 

Calculation based on moving from (500) 400W HID fixtures to T5HO fixtures estimated at $175 per fixture. Energy analysis and simple payback calculated using Minnesota's average commercial electricity rate of $.0788/kWh and 4,380 operating hours a year. Rebate amounts are not guaranteed and subject to change by the utility at any time.