Colorado Clean Energy Fund | Impact Evaluation Tool and Tool Updates
Lotus conducted an evaluation to understand the impacts of Colorado Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) funded projects on reaching the fund’s goals of mitigating climate change, advancing environmental and economic justice, and creating a healthier and more resilient Colorado. Lotus identified key impact metrics for CCEF including energy generation and use, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, cost savings, and equity metrics. These metrics were incorporated into an interactive evaluation tool which calculates impacts for individual projects and all projects together. The tool was developed to allow CCEF to enter any new projects and estimate energy impacts of different project types such as energy efficiency, equipment electrification, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Lotus also provided recommendations for improving data collection to ensure CCEF can continue to measure project impacts for all future projects.
Lotus worked with CCEF to update the evaluation tool to account for new residential programs offered by CCEF. This work entailed developing an API connection between CCEF’s customer relationship management system (Zoho) and the evaluation tool. This connection allows CCEF to import large numbers of residential projects into the tool without the need for manual data entry. Lotus then created program specific impact calculations that aligned with the metrics created in the original tool. The resulting updates allow CCEF to quickly import large batches of projects to the evaluation tool and automatically calculate impact metrics for all projects.
“The Lotus Engineering & Sustainability team developed a comprehensive, easy-to-use impact measurement tool for the Colorado Clean Energy Fund (CCEF). The entire engagement with Lotus was well-organized and cost effective, and we were amazed by how sophisticated the end product was. Thanks to the tireless effort by the team at Lotus, CCEF is now able to efficiently track and calculate its economic, environmental, and social impact across its portfolio. CCEF could not have achieved this without the help of Lotus!”