energy efficiency market Articles
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Desert Year: Why Is It So Hard to Care?
Guest blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets Reposted from Real Climate Economics Why is it so hard to care about snakes? Or the desert? The climate? And especially the environment more generally? This time the snake was real. Right there on the side of the road. Some evenings ago, however, in the waning hours of twilight, it turned out to be just a short length of black rubber hose that was ...
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US$3.1bn for state energy efficiency programs - Just one catch
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises to advance the US energy efficiency movement with an unprecedented US$26 billion infusion of funds. Of that, US$3.1 billion goes to state energy efficiency programs through the Department of Energy’s State Energy Program. Great news, right? Maybe not, says the Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON) and the National Association of ...
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Is there romance in energy efficiency?
My mother told me many good reasons why I should get married. She appears to have forgotten one. It’s energy efficient.Single people – at least those without roommates – appear to be gobbling up a lot of our energy supply. In fact, one person households are a main cause of consumer energy waste, according to a recent study “Consumer Energy Spending and the Demographics of Over-Consumption” by SMR ...
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Best Places to Learn About Energy Efficiency
Companies often email me asking for good sources of information about the energy efficiency business. These emails are coming more and more frequently as this industry continues to grow. Many of the emails come from newcomers trying to break into the field with a new product or service. They include information technology companies, engineers, manufacturers, mom & pops, insurance firms, ...
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A new EE resource: Distributed people
Energy efficiency is often described as the invisible resource. It improves our energy supply without any of the usual industry trappings: smokestacks, wind turbines, transmission lines and poles. This is one of its virtues.But efficiency’s invisibility also causes problems. Because it operates out of sight – inside walls, underneath lampshades, and in factory motors — efficiency tends to attract ...
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Electrifying vehicles: A car and its drama
By Elisa Wood July 15, 2010 Who will play the lead character in Who Revived the Electric Car?, the sequel that is bound to be made to the famous documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/. Many are vying for the role: car manufacturers, battery producers, scientists and now the Obama Administration. The White House issued a report July 14 that credits ...
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Googlifying the electric grid
If you showed Alexander Graham Bell cell phone towers, he’d be stumped. But if you let Thomas Edison tinker with our electricity grid, he’d know just what to do — not because of his genius, but because electric transmission has changed little since Edison’s day. Telephone technology advanced; electricity did not. So says the Department of Energy. http://www.oe.energy.gov/1165.htmThus, we are now ...
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Efficiency: Highest priority for no one
If there was still any question about the economic value of energy efficiency, it was put to rest this week by a McKinsey & Company report. The United States could save $1.2 trillion and generate 900,000 new jobs through better energy management, according to “Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the US Economy.” Sounds good. But there is a problem. We’ll need billions of keys to do the unlocking. ...
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Energy efficiency is so in right now Part II: The delight factor (and more energy puns)
Guest blog by Cara Miale September 8, 2011 Last week, we looked at how the energy efficiency industry is working on its cool factor (Dare I say sex appeal?), to make clean energy more accessible to the masses. Perhaps a bikini charger doesn’t make much difference when the grid is under great strain as it was this summer; but it does get people thinking about alternatives that could lead ...
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Efficiency guru: the behind-the-scenes EE revolution
When consumers open their electric bills and see rates going up and up, it’s natural for them to ask, “Why isn’t anything being done?” Truth is, an enormous behind-the-scenes revolution is taking place when it comes to energy efficiency. To get an inside look, we recently spoke with one of the industry’s long-time gurus, Steve Cowell, chairman and CEO of Conservation Services Group in Boston. ...
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Efficiency is cheap, but will it sell?
Expect to see this number a lot in energy discussions over the next few years: 2.5 cents/kWh. It is the average cost of energy efficiency, a figure pegged this week in a new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. This number is big news because it is so small. As a resource, energy efficiency beats out all conventional power sources on price. Moreover, it’s a price that ...
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White paper and audio series: Exporting US energy efficiency: Reaching growing international markets
Is it time for your company to move into international markets Our new white paper and audio series can help.Written by veteran energy journalists Elisa Wood and Lisa Cohn – based on interviews with government trade officials and US companies – the white paper describes: The market and political forces that make now the time for US companies to begin exporting energy efficiency. ...
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Profile of a white tag project
Few topics we write about here draw as much attention as energy efficiency certificates. After we mention the certificates, we inevitably receive inquiries from data centers or other large energy users, who want more information.The certificates also are called “white tags,” a term trademarked by marketer Sterling Planet. Interest in the certificates likely stems from the increasing use ...
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Energy use drops: It’s not just the economy
We’ve been hearing a lot about a drop in energy consumption as a result of the economic downturn. In fact, US energy use per person declined last year to its lowest level since 1968. Economic activity and energy use are directly linked. But lately, several reports have noted that the economic slowdown is not the only reason energy consumption is falling. Aggressive energy efficiency ...
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Utilities: friend or foe of energy efficiency?
With oil prices so high, talk again has turned to making the U.S. more energy efficient. In the power industry, utilities have been typically charged with this mission. Or to more aptly describe it, they have gotten dragged, kicking and screaming, into helping their customers use less electricity. You can’t blame them for resisting. An electric utility is a business that makes its money ...
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EnergyStar shakes-up enforcement: Announcement of new measures to increase energy efficiency compliance
Most Americans are familiar with the blue-and-white EnergyStar logo, which has an almost 20-year history of helping consumers “save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.” Jointly managed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, the EnergyStar program encompasses more than 60 different products from refrigerators ...
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Wanted: GOLD for smart grid
As John McDonald tells it, smart grid needs GOLD. And he’s not talking money. GOLD stands for Graduates of the Last Decade, the technology savvy, risk-taking engineers and technicians who may be among the greatest benefactors of the new smart grid movement. While most recent college graduates face dismal employment prospects, for the GOLD kids, the job market is, well, golden. ...
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What will rising electricity rates mean to clean energy?
A political consultant once told me that Americans only vote for the environmental candidate if the economy is thriving. The nation’s financial house needs to be in order before voters will tend the garden. Green energy advocates appear to have circumvented this tendency in recent years by promoting green jobs. The political formula is no longer the environment or the economy, but the ...
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Obama, poker and what 2010 holds for energy efficiency
Jon Stewart said it best: Obama is a lousy poker payer. Lucky thing, too, for the energy efficiency industry as it heads into 2010. Stewart’s December 8 “The Daily Show” aired a clip of Obama recently telling business leaders: “I don't want to tip our hand too much, but one of the things I would be surprised if we don't end up moving forward on is an aggressive agenda for energy efficiency and ...
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Efficiency is so in right now
In the movie The Social Network, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want ads on an early version of his social network; he understands that first and foremost, his site has to be cool. And ads, he says, aren’t cool. Unlike Zuckerberg (well, at least in the beginning), the energy efficiency industry hasn’t quite grasped the value of being cool. It’s an industry that ...
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