2024-01-15 23:02:54
The energy bill for Châteaudun (Eure-et-Loir) will double in 2023. In eleven months, the town of 13,000 inhabitants spent 1,549,000 euros on its energy consumption. In 2022, the municipality had paid 614,208 euros. An additional line of one million euros to add to the budget, difficult to swallow for Mayor Fabien Verdier (SE). “We will make less investment, we will have to moderate ourselves, this reduces our capacity for self-investment. It’s huge, one million euros is 4.5% of our operating budget of 22 million,” laments the elected official.
Gas (341,554 euros in 2023 against 124,976 euros in 2022) and even biomass (296,328 euros in 2023 against 235,987 euros in 2022), each item has increased, particularly electricity with a bill of 911,123 euros in 2023, against 253,244 euros in 2022 The mayor is pleased to have anticipated this increase by renewing some of the city’s street lamps. “Eight hundred very energy-intensive candelabras over three thousand have been switched to LED lights. Certainly, the bill for public lighting increases from 207.00 euros in 2022 to 370,000 euros in 2023 but it would have been worse if we had not taken the lead,” breathes the councilor.
The city resolves to sell its heritage
Another solution for Châteaudun is to invest in energy renovation like at the Jean-Macé school where “220 windows were changed and the walls of the establishment were insulated from the outside,” says the mayor. Unfortunately, the city is constrained by its debt. “We lack the means,” explains Fabien Verdier, who calls on residents to take good practice actions “like closing the doors of the Espace Malraux”. Because the elected official fears further increases in energy costs in 2024. “Hopefully it will be less hard on the city’s finances. »
To reduce expenses, the forty-year-old also believes in two final strategies: the sale of municipal assets such as that of the Hôtel-Dieu which he sold to second-hand dealer Julien Cohen. “The city owns 160 properties. You can only be a multi-owner when you are rich, because this multiplies your energy, insurance and maintenance costs,” emphasizes Fabien Verdier. The second strategy: the installation of photovoltaic shade structures. Three car parks, that of the media library, the swimming pool and the Beauvoir stadium, are equipped with these solar roofs. “These shade houses will bring us 200,000 euros in thirty years,” notes the elected official. A drop in the ocean in the face of the increase in energy in 2023.
#enormous #Châteaudun #energy #bill #increase #million #euros