By Kathryn Reed

In order to become a more sustainable city when it comes to electric and natural gas usage, it’s important to know how much of those products is being consumed.

South Lake Tahoe’s 100 Percent Renewable Committee this week gave an update to the City Council that included data from the free State and Local Energy Data analysis.

The purpose, according to committee members, is to estimate the greenhouse gas reduction potential of the city. The analysis showed commercial properties use the most electricity, then residential and then government. The top commercial user is Barton Memorial Hospital with 11,279 megawatt hours, followed by the 37 lodging properties with a combined use of 5,443 MWh, and 17 food and beverage outlets at 4,968 MWh.

The hospital is also the largest user of natural gas, at 45,790 Mcf. (An Mcf is a thousand cubic feet of natural gas.) The lodging establishments use 9,594 Mcf. The third top users are the three businesses considered waste management and remediation services, with 5,324 Mcf.

Suggestions to lower consumption include:

·      Retrofitting buildings

·      Challenge programs for households, businesses and industries

·      Targeted outreach to neighborhoods

·      Create a one-stop for technical services coupled with utility incentives.

The committee plans to work with the top five users of both categories to work on ways they could reduce consumption.

In April the council passed the resolution to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2032. In addition to wanting the city to be using renewable energy, reducing the use is part of the goal.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District was singled out as an entity that has taken great strides to lower its energy use.

Heavenly Mountain Resort was not part of the study because its meters are either in El Dorado or Douglas counties.

The committee plans to come back to the council with recommendations after further analysis is completed.