2011
Taking a cue from eBay, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources created a first-of-its-kind live online auction to award $3 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act-funded energy efficiency grants to businesses. This program won the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's (MEEA) 2011 Inspiring Efficiency Innovation Award. The Missouri DNR's Best Price Energy Efficiency Program distributed grants to businesses through a real-time, online reverse auction. Twenty-three pre-qualified businesses competitively bid on a $/Kilowatt hour-saved basis for funding to run energy efficiency projects. Developed in partnership with Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, the reverse auction was executed through an online, eBay-like platform. However, instead of outbidding each other, businesses competed to see who could get the most energy savings out of each of the 16 grants, which ranged from $100,000 to $500,000. The winning bidders then spent those funds on "shovel-ready" energy efficiency projects such as installing strip curtains on commercial refrigeration units and retrofitting industrial lighting systems, which in turn led to energy savings, reduced emissions, job creation and economic growth.
DocumentIEA-2011_award-release_modnr.pdf (139.52 KB)