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The City of Key West was recently selected to receive technical assistance through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project, which provides strategic energy planning to U.S. coastal, remote, and island communities to improve energy resilience. Through this project, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) developed a Strategic Energy Plan for the City of Key West, outlining a comprehensive strategy to improve energy efficiency and independence using local renewable resources to foster long-term resilience. The Plan is structured around four focus areas:

• Energy Efficiency: Reduce overall energy consumption and utility costs across municipal, residential, and commercial buildings.
• Local Energy Generation: Increase the share of energy produced from local sources to enhance energy independence.
• Resilience: Strengthen critical infrastructure and community preparedness for flooding, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events.
• Electric Transportation: Support the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and develop reliable charging infrastructure to lower emissions and reliance on imported fuels.

The Strategic Energy Plan identifies specific challenges, sets clear goals, and proposes actionable opportunities with implementation timelines and key stakeholders. A baseline assessment reveals significant energy consumption in both City-owned and residential/commercial buildings, limited local renewable energy generation, and an early-stage EV market with vulnerable charging infrastructure. The proposed solutions emphasize a multi-faceted approach, leveraging both established and innovative technologies, while addressing financial, technical, and community engagement challenges.

The analysis provided concrete data and strategies that will have a meaningful impact on energy conservation. For example, within residential buildings, Simulation results of a typical Key West single-family house show that combining Retrofit strategies such as weatherstripping and air sealing, duct sealing, shading devices, raised floors (with and without insulation), appliance upgrades, and impact-resistant, energy-efficient windows can reduce annual electricity use by up to 35% in older homes and 20% in newer homes, with annual savings of up to $880 per household.

Building upon the analysis conducted through the ETIPP Strategic Energy Plan, the City has recently submitted an application to be selected for the DOE’s “Deep Dive Project’ as part of this initiative. If selected, the initiative would develop a citywide Energy and Resilience Map for Key West using an urban building energy model to evaluate the impacts of energy efficiency upgrades and assess building vulnerability under climate and grid-related stressors. The project will inform cost-effective retrofit strategies and resilience investments by simulating energy savings, implementation costs, and risk exposure across the city’s diverse building stock.