I know it since my Master’s Thesis : insulating buildings and installing efficient renewable energies heaters is one of the most important ways to cut our fossil fuels consumption and greenhouse gases emissions.
Meanwhile,according to a report published by Ernst & Young investing in energy efficiency is in vogue as required investments are lower and as returns are most of the time faster. (cf the Green Inc. article for more)
In these conditions, could financial institutions like stock markets pay for your home insulation ? GreenTech Enterprise tackles the issue and comes to interesting conclusions.
Here is an extract of their article :
It’s at least a few years off, but a combination of circumstances could come together that would effectively prompt financial institutions to cover part or all the cost of new insulation and water heaters in your home.
To make it even better, homeowners will be able to extract penalties out of retrofitters whose repairs don’t live up to expectations, according to Matt Golden, co-founder of Recurve, which specializes in residential retrofits and software for conducting retrofits.
“This is all market based,” Golden said. “They will pay for retrofits from forward markets.”
The operative concept at play here is forward capacity. Forward capacity, also known as permanent load shifting (PLS), is effectively a more static and predictable version of the demand response services now provided by companies like Comverge and EnerNoc. In the demand-response model, these companies curtail heaters and pool pumps to curb peak power consumption.
In forward capacity or PLS, energy efficiency repairs shift or eliminate peak demand permanently, or at least until someone removes the repairs. EPS, which makes energy efficiency equipment for food processors, says it has diverted 1.5 megawatts of power to off-peak times in Southern California, giving the utility some breathing room and shaving $232,000 a year off the utility bills of its industrial refrigeration customers.
Energy efficiency is the very basis of a sustainable society. I am glad to see that companies are starting to understand and act on that matter.
