In order to reduce energy consumption on a community-wide level, the City is working to create an Energy Action Plan (EAP) which will be the foundation of the energy section of the Climate and Environmental Action Plan (CEAP). The EAP will allow the City to be more energy resilient, reduce negative environmental and health impacts of fossil fuel-based energy, and save on energy costs. The goals of an EAP include:

• Increase energy efficiency
• Reduce energy costs
• Reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions/ improve air quality
• Adopt local renewable energy projects
• Support a fair transition from fossil fuels
• Strengthen energy reliability and community safety in the event of an outage
• Accelerate the development of local sustainability projects and plans

Our EAP will take analyze energy consumption from 2010 onwards and identify energy reduction opportunities. Strategies involving energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy sources, and energy storage will be examined, with a goal to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions in the residential, commercial, industrial and municipal sectors.

Strategies to be considered include:

• Solar ordinances requiring solar installations beyond the state code
• Solar carports
• Support of zero net energy (ZNE) projects
• Energy efficiency competitions
• Incentives for deep retrofits to encourage a deeper, more comprehensive set of energy improvements
• Energy reduction actions in schools
• Energy-efficient streetlighting
• Cool pavement and cool roofing
• Electric vehicle charging stations
• Battery energy storage systems (BESS) to store energy from renewable sources
• Reach codes

In partnership with the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance and Community Environmental Council, the City drafted an EAP with help from the Thousand Oaks community. Further EAP planning work has transitioned to the City's Climate and Environmental Action Plan (CEAP). Please check out our Climate Action page for more information.