Plan will help center cut costs, up efficiency

Turning waste energy into usable heat and electricity would translate into huge savings for a facility as large as the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, and that is just what's going to happen, thanks to the efforts of Nick Schiavo, an energy specialist with the city's Long Range Planning Division.

Schiavo wrote a proposal resulting in a $125,000 grant to the city from the New Mexico Clean Energy Projects program. The money will be used to install a co-generation system that takes wasted heat from a boiler and creates electricity, and takes wasted heat from generating electricity and uses it for heating.

Once in place, the system will save money and energy reduce the center's greenhouse gas emissions.