Water conservation is a key strategy to managing water resources and responding to ongoing drought conditions in the Colorado River basin that are challenging water supplies in the West. To help ensure the community’s long-term sustainability, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) recently augmented two of its voluntary water conservation incentive programs.
The SNWA increased its incentive for Water Efficient Technologies (WET) projects that improve the efficiency of existing evaporative cooling systems or replace the systems with dry-cooled versions. The water agency also approved a new cash incentive for trees planted as part of the Water Smart Landscapes (WSL) program to help expand and diversify the community’s urban tree population.
Evaporative cooling consumes about 10 percent of Southern Nevada’s annual water supply. New ordinances and development codes prohibit the water-cooled systems in new commercial construction projects that submitted building permit applications after Sept. 1, 2023. However, there are still thousands of existing systems in the Las Vegas Valley.
Converting evaporative towers to air-cooled systems can require millions of dollars to implement, and system upgrades also can be costly. The changes to the WET program will help incentivize non-residential customers to invest in equipment, site improvements, control systems and other cooling projects that improve water efficiency or replace the systems completely.
“We continue to create opportunities that help businesses invest in water-efficient technologies, so the community remains sustainable and economically strong,” said SNWA Water Resources Director Zane Marshall.
Commercial and multifamily property owners who install water-efficient technologies are eligible for a variety of WET cash incentives. However, the recent WET program changes increased the incentives for only evaporative cooling system projects. The new incentives include:
- Increasing the incentive for consumptive water use reduction for evaporative cooling conversions from $45 to $70 per 1,000 gallons of water saved annually.
- Making permanent the rebate incentive for wet-to-dry cooling from $950 to $1,500 per ton.
- Removing the annual cap of $500,000 per WET evaporative cooling project to support larger projects.
The total rebate incentive will continue to cover up to 50 percent of the total project cost.
“The WET incentive has helped businesses upgrade to more efficient cooling systems or replace them all together; however, the financial investment can have a chilling effect on businesses voluntarily making these upgrades,” Marshall said. “We anticipate that the revised incentives for the WET program will help increase participation in the program.”
Businesses are not required to replace the entire evaporative cooling system to qualify for the WET rebate. System modifications and upgrades also are covered by the rebate program.
Resorts World, for example, recently installed a new controller for its cooling towers, improving water efficiency by better controlling and monitoring the system’s operations. With the new controller, the resort can cycle water more efficiently and replace it less often, saving more than 18 million gallons of water a year. The 3,500-room resort received a WET rebate to help pay for some of the costs associated with the upgrade.
In addition to the WET incentive increase, the SNWA has added a new tree incentive to the WSL rebate. The SNWA will rebate property owners $100 per living tree planted as part of the landscape conversion program. The tree rebate is in addition to the $3 per square foot incentive for replacing grass with drip-irrigated plants and trees.
Multifamily, business, HOA, and residential properties participating in the WSL rebate automatically are considered for the tree incentive as part of the program enrollment (some restrictions apply).
“The tree incentive will encourage more trees throughout the Las Vegas Valley, which will help mitigate urban heat island effects by expanding shady tree canopies and reducing sun and heat exposures on hard surfaces that often trap heat,” Marshall said. “Trees require much less water than grass and offer significant benefits to the community, including improved resilience to climate change.”For more information about the WET rebate and WSL rebate, visit snwa.com.