Efficiency


Utilities converting to smart meters must find out how the new technology creates value for their customers, and not just financial value, experts told the Edison Foundation’s Powering the People 2.0 conference in Washington, DC March 22.

Utilities nationwide are wrestling with how to get customers to buy into the potential the new technology offers. Smart meters have met resistance from customers citing privacy worries, claims of health issues from the meters’ communication chips, and charges the devices are a subterfuge to raise electricity prices. Keep reading →

A House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on March 22, 2012 in Washington, DC.

The U.S. military can jump-start commercialization of energy innovations by serving as a test bed for new ideas, top Department of Defense officials say. Keep reading →


Ultimately, you want an energy efficiency plan for your business – understanding it makes good business sense to lower your energy consumption, to save money, improve your bottom line and protect the environment in the process. You followed the preliminary steps of benchmarking to see how your building compares with similar buildings in your area. You’ve also had an energy audit to get a handle on what upgrades your building needs.

After looking at the laundry list of inefficient equipment and building systems that need improvements and the associated costs, you start to conceptualize the various ways to shuffle the budget to find capital for these improvements and make it work! Keep reading →


Just three years after fears of an energy supply shortage, executives of the world’s leading oil companies now foresee a bonanza of oil and natural gas on the horizon.

In 2008, concern that a rapidly developing world was eating through all its energy supplies helped push prices to record levels, with oil hitting $147 a barrel and natural gas topping $15 per million cubic feet. Keep reading →


Energy nerds may be calculating emissions every time they turn on their cars, but they may not realize that some motors are burning far more energy, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Industrial motor systems burn far more energy and emit much more CO2 than the average person realizes, several GE executives told Breaking Energy in a recent phone conversation (in total these systems account for roughly 25-30% of the United States’ total energy consumption.) They said that if industrial facility operators in the US adopted high-efficiency motors like the ones GE sells, those industries could save $3-5 billion annually in electric bills and could reduce CO2 emissions by 15-26 million metric tons per year, about the same as taking 3-5 million passenger vehicles off the road. Keep reading →


Although the Solyndra bankruptcy caused many to doubt the viability of US solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing, some companies have not missed a beat in the race to develop a cheaper more efficient model that will prove profitable.

Last week, Silicon Valley-based thin film PV solar manufacturing company MiaSole announced it had successfully produced a copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) model that was 13% more efficient than panels released just this year. Keep reading →

North Dakota was dead last in energy efficiency in 2010. Can it climb? Big reveal is 10/20: #ACEEEScorecard http://bit.ly/reJKKA ACEEEdc


Did you know lighting consumes up to 40% of a commercial facility’s electricity? The heat output from lights also impacts cooling loads.

In this article we will explore the following four options you can employ to reduce lighting costs: Keep reading →


Last week, one third of the country saw thermometers hit triple digits. Across the nation, air conditioners are cranking and sprinklers are chugging away as millions continue to seek relief from the summer heat.

While grateful for the welcome relief provided by utilities, many of us are increasingly mindful of the precious resources we are tapping. Just looking around at the buildings where we live and work, it is all too easy to identify ways we waste energy and water. In fact, it has been estimated that we throw away as much as 30-50% of the energy and water that flows into our buildings. Multiply that by the nearly 5 million buildings in the US alone and I’m sure you’ll agree we have a big opportunity to better conserve energy and water. Keep reading →


Now oil firms are beginning to leverage smart grid technologies in their operations.

Saudi Armaco has begun installation of Smartcool’s ESM technology in its facilities in efforts to improve the energy efficiency of its air conditioning systems. After substantial testing with Saudi Aramco, Smartcool found that the ESM technology saved the Middle Eastern country 65,883 kWh in electricity costs for cooling. Keep reading →

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