Enigin Update - Finance Incentives Key to Building Energy Efficiency
AVAILABILITY of financing and incentives are among the key elements to driving increased energy efficiency in buildings, according to leaders who attended the North America Energy Efficiency Forum.
The forum, co-sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association and Johnson Controls, examined how advanced efficiency technologies, energy policies and consumer education can improve energy security, global competitiveness and accelerate economic growth.
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, told leading policymakers and energy experts that: "The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is very interested in advancing opportunities for the Federal Government to serve as a model for the increased utilization of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies.
"Such policies and measures can save taxpayers significant dollars, create private sector jobs, and greatly enhance energy markets. Two specific and highly effective ways for the Federal Government to achieve this goal have been through energy saving performance contracts (ESPCs) and federal power purchase agreements (PPAs)."
"The deployment of existing energy efficiency technologies is the nearest-term and lowest-cost option for moderating our nation's demand for energy ... and... the potential energy savings from accelerated deployment ... could more than offset ... projected increases in U.S. energy consumption through 2030."
Republican Charlie Bass, told forum attendees that the United States can become a leader in energy efficiency and renewable energy through technological and financial innovation, pointing out that he is working on energy efficiency legislation to be introduced in the House of Representatives.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus emphasized the need for clean energy in the context of increasing national security. "Energy is a vulnerability of ours. We have to take care of that vulnerability to be better warfighters. We have to take care of this to be the Navy and Marine Corps that we need to be. This is not just sort of one of those passing fancies ... . This is our main vulnerability," said Mabus.
Financing and incentives also were identified as key drivers of energy efficiency projects by public and private sector building owners and operators, according to the results of Johnson Controls 5th annual Global Energy Efficiency Indicator, which were reported on these pages last week. Nearly 4,000 survey respondents cited energy cost savings and government incentives as the top motivators for energy efficiency investments, while access to funding was the top barrier for improving energy consumption.
Dave Myers, President of Johnson Controls Building Efficiency, said, following the meeting that state and local governments can help enable private sector investment in building efficiency through initiatives such as Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programmes, which are now available in 24 states and Washington, D.C. and is emerging as an important mechanism for financing commercial building retrofits. PACE for commercial buildings allows property owners to finance energy improvements through property taxes, overcoming several common barriers to efficiency.
Myers also said federal loan guarantees for building energy efficiency projects would also help stimulate private sector financing of commercial building retrofits. "Because these building efficiency projects have strong paybacks, loan guarantees would stimulate an exponential increase in private sector financing for these retrofit projects."
"Buildings account for 42 percent of the energy consumed around the world. We have the technology and capability to dramatically reduce that consumption. Building owners tell us they want to improve the efficiency of their buildings, but the lack of funding is getting in the way. We believe policies supporting PACE financing and loan guarantees would not only stimulate private sector investment, but create local market jobs," Myers said.
Enigin have the technology that is already helping many building owners to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Enigin Distributors base much of their work on the Enigin Eniscope, which enables them to gain control of their energy use and spend.
The Enigin Eniscope reduces energy waste and bills, while also providing real-time and analytical energy use data to enable planning and application of other energy efficiency measures.
(Source PRNewswire)
Picture of office building lights on no one home by jeffwillcox
