Electric motors are everywhere. They lift elevators, bring conditioned air to your desk, make your washing machine agitate and your PC hard drive spin. What’s surprising is that they are quietly – or not so quietly – consuming more electricity than any other single use. One company is working to change that. Read the rest of this entry »
If the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 promotes the adoption of more efficient electric motors in industrial facilities, that will be a welcome Earth Day gift for all of us. Read the rest of this entry »
Energy models apply the laws of physics, but the hazy laws of human behavior might be behind the surprisingly good results found in recent independent tests of a retrofit window insulation product from Portland, Oregon-based Indow Windows.
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Energy utility customers will contribute about $9.5 billion for energy efficiency programs in 2025 according to a report published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Read the rest of this entry »
Newer-construction homes in the Northwest are outperforming older ones by a wide margin, thanks to stricter building codes. However there are plenty of low-hanging fruit yet to be harvested for residential energy efficiency, according to a new study spanning four states. Read the rest of this entry »
How does a utility with some of the country’s lowest electric rates convince customers to do anything to save energy? Denis DuBois talked with John Francisco, who manages Energy Services for Inland Power, to find out why their energy efficiency programs are successful. Inland Power and Light is an electric co-op powering 39,000 homes, farms and businesses in eastern Washington. Read the rest of this entry »
The commercial landlord-tenant relationship can be adversarial, with split incentives and other hurdles to implementing energy efficiency upgrades. Two real-estate pros share their experiences from the front lines of sustainability and offer their advice for fostering collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »
Judges for the 2012 Cleantech Open have chosen the nation’s most promising cleantech startup in 2012′s final competition. The top winner’s invention may power your next washing machine. Read the rest of this entry »
Snohomish County Public Utility District is known in the Pacific Northwest for its innovative approaches to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Denis Du Bois interviewed Bob Gunn, senior utility analyst for the PUD, to find out what programs are successful today and why. Read the rest of this entry »
Avista Utilities has been promoting energy efficiency since 1978 — it’s one of the few utilities that has as many years of uninterrupted experience. This investor-owned utility in Spokane, WA, provides electric and natural gas service to homes and businesses in three states. It gained national recognition in the 1990s for its efficiency programs, which have been widely copied, and it recently won awards for its use of the web and social media. Denis Du Bois sat down with Bruce Folsom, Avista’s Director of Energy Efficiency Policy, to find out why a 123-year-old utility in the Pacific Northwest is a leader in the U.S. when it comes to energy efficiency.
