Girls Scouts: Your next energy engineers

Think it’s too expensive to have an energy audit performed on your building, maybe you should call your local Girl Scout troop!

FTA:

Being a Girl Scout has come a long way from making jewelry out of tree bark and safety pins and selling cookies. And it’s a good thing, too.

Tomorrow, 25 Girl Scout Juniors and Cadettes will participate in a day-long camp focused on improving energy efficiency in buildings. They’ll learn the bulk of the lessons by performing an energy audit of the Math and Science Center and the Program Center at Camp Dellwood in Indianapolis, IN.

However, the training is intended to do more than just teach about energy efficiency

I wish I would have learned that in Boy Scouts, it would have made the learning curve on my last job a lot easier...

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: energy engineers,wierd

The Pickens Plan

With the jumpy gas prices and the new president elect I figured a little talk about energy policy was in order.  My friend Sam and I often debate politics, and he pointed me to one interesting site. 

The Pickens Plan is actually pretty simple. We need to get off the oil addiction, and start feeding our selves. The basic concept is, we should do as much as we can, with what we have, and according to the studies behind the plan, what we have is more potential wind power then any other nation on the planet, plus a lot of natural gas.

From the site:

In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.

Today it's nearly 70% and growing.

As imports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.

The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.

Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains States are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.

The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.

A cheap new replacement for foreign oil.

The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world according to the EPA.

Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.

Cleaner
Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.  According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.

Cheaper
Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com.

Domestic
Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations.

I’ve always been a fan of energy diversity, so personally, I think this would definitely be a step in the right direction.  The only thing left to do is email Obama, and Congress.  The pickensplan.com even lets you do that!

So the question is what's the down side?

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: Pickens plan,wind power,natural gas

M&V recommended by Ontario's Chief Energy Conservation Officer

CECO Annual Report: Health Care, Academic Institutions and Leading Businesses Should Appoint Conservation Champions
Here are some high lights, check out the whole report here.
Ontario's Chief Energy Conservation Officer (CECO) Peter Love released his fourth annual report today, formally recommending the appointment of energy conservation officers for all health care and academic institutions, as well as leading businesses, across the province. 
The Government of Ontario should develop and implement an energy conservation measurement and verification plan for its in-house energy-efficiency program. The federal government and others engaged in conservation should take a similar approach.
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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

 

del.icio.us Tags: m&v

In the LEED

I found this LEED documentation submittal cheat sheet and thought some other people might find it useful.

Anyone in the know, I'd like to see some stats on LEED requests, and what percentage of people are getting the IPMVP point.

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: LEED,IPMVP,cheat sheet

Taking M&V a step further

An interesting article at R&D magazine explains how one laboratory proprietor takes M&V to the next level measuring not only the energy using of each individual tenant but also their air usage.  The idea is that with an efficient building and accurate metering of actual usage, operating costs will be lower for all tenets, giving the building an added value over competitors.

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: M&V,R&D

Accountability and Opportunity As the Credit Crisis Slows Investment

I’ve seen a lot of talk about the silver lining of the credit crises and wanted to share my point of view as to how it affects the energy efficiency industry and M&V.

One article from the triple pundit comments on these articles from Grist and the New York Times. The basic consensus is that with a lack of funds available for clean energy investment, the new industry will suffer.

While this may be true for clean energy, I know that gasoline being back under $2.00 a gallon has changed Detroit’s view of the electric cars. A month ago Chrysler and GM were both unveiling the cars of the future powered 100% by electricity, but now with other problems, and profitable truck sales climbing once again, putting off long term investment for some quick gains now seems to make sense for them.

For energy efficiency which generally has a quick ROI, a down market may spur interest in the cost cutting procedures. This contrast to the clean energy industry will hopefully help us keep our collective eye on the ball that is the environment. It may also put more pressure on the powers that be behind the Kyoto Protocol to loosen up regulation around getting carbon credit for energy efficiency projects.

One thing that is for sure, as with any investment in this market, people are going to want a proven methodology for calculating returns and proving performance. This is where EVO and IPMVP come into play.

If you are an investor you may want to become a subscriber at EVO, our chairman published some interesting news in our subscribers’ news letter about upcoming tools that will soon be available to you.

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: clean energy,electric cars,Kyoto Protocol

What are energy savings certificates (ESCs)?

I found this great article at the World Resources Institute, that does a great job of explaining what energy saving certificates are.

From the article:

What are energy savings certificates (ESCs)?

Energy savings certificates (ESCs) are tradable certificates, similar to renewable energy certificates (RECs), that typically represent one megawatt-hour (MWh) of energy savings from efficiency projects. ESCs are also known by various other names, including:

Energy efficiency certificates or credits (EECs)

White certificates or tradable white certificates (TWCs)

White TagsTM

Differing terminology is also used to describe ESCs in individual markets, based on specific state policy language such as:

Connecticut – Class III Renewable Energy Credits

Nevada – Portfolio Energy Credits

Pennsylvania – Tier II Alternative Energy Credits...

If you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask check it out…

Have any other questions about the energy efficiency industry or the M&V industry.  Let me know, post it here.  You ask the questions and I’ll do the research to find the answer (If I don’t already know it).  Sound like a good deal if you ask me!

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: energy savings certificates

Free Online Education

After looking into some online courses, I came across a number of free online education tools, it seems you can learn just about anything online these days.

According to Carbon Offsets Daily you can even join a live Webcast where, among other things, they teach M&V techniques courtesy of the University of Delaware.

Some other free online education tools that may be worth listing to on the plain before that conference you are speaking at include lecture from Stanford University, MIT, and Berkeley.

You can see the whole list of Ivy league schools any many more resources at this lifehacker article.

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Nathan Shetterley (nathan.shetterley@gmail.com)
EVO New Media Director

del.icio.us Tags: online education,M&V