Green Energy - A Watt saved is a Watt earned.

This blog post might get me into trouble.

This is a case where I think my opinion is shared by many in our industry who are just afraid to speak up for fear of losing business or being ridiculed.

Money spent on most green energy technologies is wasted!
There I said it. Every dollar that is spent to GENERATE green energy, could be better used to SAVE energy.

Perceptions are the Problem:
Energy conservation methods do not have the sex appeal that new forms of generation do. The reality is that we already have ways to generate lots of energy cheaply without foreign oil or creating greenhouse gases. Nuclear Energy has served us well. If one were to calculate the cost in human lives for each Watt of energy consumed in the United States by Nuclear Generation and any other major source, you would find that Nuclear Energy is the cleaner, safer, alternative.

I am sure that our electrical founding father, Benjamin Franklin, would agree that a Watt saved is a Watt earned.

I admit that energy conservation efforts are not sexy, but they are a better investment than green generation (assuming that we do not consider subsidies). There is a lot of room in my industry for improvement, but it is a difficult sell. The savings lie in software and improved methods to reduce consumption that will have little or no visible impact and may result in reducing human comfort (gasp).

As an example, ENE Systems has developed a clever Optimal Start / Optimal Stop OPC Server that can connect to most commercial control systems to start temperature control equipment at the last possible minute to achieve set point prior to occupancy. Without this type of software, achieving set point prior to occupancy is normally done by turning on the equipment on an hour or more prior to occupancy to make sure that the space has a chance to warm up.

I have a lot more to say about this subject, but this is enough for today's post. Stay tuned for: "You get what you measure".