I spent last Wednesday at the California PUC in San Francisco participating in a workshop debating the merits of California’s newly proposed policy for utility on-bill repayment (OBR). (Although being at the workshop necessitated my taking the Boston redeye that night (ugh) my spirits were lifted as I waited at SFO and watched Duke hoop’s last minute upset at UNC – but I digress…)
Topics: CESA, On Bill Finance, Energy Savings Agreement, On Bill Repayment, OBR, PACE, OBF
While 2011 held the promise and controversy of continued utility smart meter rollouts, 2012 may end up becoming the year of submeter.
Topics: energy monitoring, Sub-metering, Enterprise Smart Grid
We’ve seen it happen in the past when times get tough – politicians, desperate to keep funding for critical government programs, consider raiding existing set-asides for renewable energy.
Topics: Solar PV, Clean Energy grants, Section 1603
As we watch Europe’s financial system teeter on the brink, many are preparing for the US’s own unwelcomed, but necessary austerity effort. Yet with yesterday’s deadlock by the Super Committee, we’re all left wondering if our elected leaders have been watching too much ESPN, detailing the NBA’s own failure to come to an agreement, after over two years of negotiations.
Topics: Federal Grants, DOE Loan Guarantee, Clean Energy grants, Investment Tax Credit
Sub-metering your main meter is a fundamental start to developing a comprehensive corporate energy management strategy. But since this takes time, money or one of the few utilities that offer this as a free service, many companies don’t yet have this visibility.
Topics: Sub-metering, Enterprise Smart Grid
Three years ago, as we were developing our own energy efficiency finance program, I was struck by how few people had yet recognized the market opportunity for financing energy-efficient building upgrades through a shared-savings approach. Large ESCO performance contract firms continued to rely solely on their customers using tax-exempt bonds to pay for their projects and solar PPA firms focused, surprise, on solar. Only a handful of us were hustling after this emerging market.
Topics: On Bill Finance, Blog Topics, Power Purchase Agreement
In late 2008 George Bush’s $700 billion TARP investment put the US Federal Government into the private equity business.
Topics: Federal Grants, DOE Loan Guarantee, Stimulus
There are two sides to a company’s energy profile – consumption of energy by its facility assets (HVAC, lighting, etc.) and it’s purchase of utility services (electricity, gas, etc.) In practice energy engineering teams (including ours) spend most of their time identifying opportunities for energy efficient equipment upgrades or behavior changes. Purchased utility services are usually taken as a given, with utility bills being studied for historical inflation rates, usage patterns and demand charges.
Topics: Energy Efficiency, Power Purchase Agreement, Behavior Change
Top business schools Harvard, Kellogg and University of Chicago have entire departments studying Organizational Behavior (OB). Wharton even has an annual conference called OB. The OB curriculums are cross-disciplinary, combining psychology, anthropology, economics and political science, as they consider how organizations work and how managers can best drive posititve change.
Topics: Behavior Change
Several years ago Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) was all the rage.
Topics: ISO 50001
