Is Occupy Wall St. Occupying the Wrong Street?

By Elisa Wood
October 26, 2011

My Dad and I have a running joke when we’re in the car together. “Look,” he’ll say. “Gas is cheap. It’s down to $3.39.” Cheap, he means, compared with the month before when it was $3.79 per gallon.

The joke illustrates a good point. A few years ago we were flabbergasted by gasoline prices that exceeded $3 per gallon. Now we’re really happy when it doesn’t hit $4 per gallon.

When it comes to energy, we’re like frogs in water coming to a slow boil. We’ve gotten so accustomed to high oil prices, we don’t notice anymore that we’re cooked.

In my two decades writing about energy, this is one of the most poignant facts I’ve run across: Oil price spikes preceded 10 of our 11 last recessions. This statistic portrays in a nutshell the grip that petroleum holds on us.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not letting the banks off the hook. But by focusing so much passion on the banks in casting blame for today’s economic downturn, is Occupy Wall Street letting a major culprit slink off unnoticed down the alley?

The Econbowser.com, source of the 10 out of 11 stat, says that in 2008 high oil prices caused a drop in overall spending, which served as “the knockout punch for an economy that was already wobbly.” The article goes on to say that “there’s no question that more favorable fundamentals are exactly what we would have had if the price of oil had never gone over $100 a barrel.”

But there’s good news too. When oil prices are high, the innovators emerge. And that’s what is happening today. Over the last few months I’ve run into some pretty intriguing – possibly game changing – new energy technologies. Here are a few.

This week I interviewed Riggs Eckleberry, CEO or OriginOil, a company that has found a highly efficient way to harvest algae and extract its oil, a process that takes advantage of algae’s sensitivity to electrical fields. The approach promises to save both energy and water in processing algae. As Eckleberry puts it, algae is a renewable “petroleum that is being made fresh instead of fossilized.” He sees algae becoming an important part of the energy mix in the short-term and a serious competitor to petroleum in the long term.

In working on an article for an upcoming issue of Renewable Energy World magazine, I learned about Dyesol, an Australian company that uses dye sensitive solar products to generate electricity. Dyesol describes the process as ‘artificial photosynthesis.’ It uses an electrolyte, in this case a layer of titania (a pigment used in white paints and tooth paste) and ruthenium dye sandwiched between glass in a window. Light strikes the dye and excites electrons that are absorbed by the titania to become an electric current many times stronger than that found in plant photosynthesis. The window creates electricity using both the artificial light in the building and the sunshine outdoors.

Meanwhile, Swapnil Shah, CEO of FirstFuel, described to me how his company conducts in-depth energy audits on commercial buildings without ever setting foot in the building. FirstFuel’s analytics software offers a “zero touch” alternative to cumbersome building energy audits. Already being used by several utilities, the software program also provides specific recommendations for efficiency improvements. To run its analytics, FirstFuel only requires easily accessible information about the building, such as its billing history and address. The program relies on the Web and GPS to obtain the rest of the data it needs. (More on FirstFuel in next week’s blog.)

Innovators like these folks worry that when oil prices drop, investors and policymakers will lose interest in finding energy alternatives. It’s a pattern we’ve fallen into before. Just as high oil prices precede recessions, low oil prices precede periods of apathy. Maybe we’ve been cooked enough this time to reverse the pattern.

Time to 'like' the energy internet

By Elisa Wood
October 19, 2011

We hear a lot about the upcoming democratization of energy. But with the average consumer thinking about energy only six minutes per year, it’s fair to wonder if anyone will show up to ‘vote.’

But this week an alliance that includes the intriguing combination of Opower and Facebook offers promise that this futuristic concept may not be so far off into the future.

The democratization of energy gives consumers the ability to take charge of their electricity production and use via new technologies, much the way they’ve gained control over information flow via the Internet. Think rooftop solar panels and plug-in electric vehicles, which together give you the ability to not only make your own energy, but also store it and sell it. Combine these technologies with smart meters, dynamic pricing, virtual net metering, solar gardens, home energy displays and Internet-enabled appliances and you have an electricity system that looks far different than today’s. Large energy producers and operators now control the electric grid, but a democratized grid distributes this control to the rest of us. You and I, in essence, become the power plant.

The democratization of energy, also called the energy internet, holds a lot of appeal in a world where we feel like victims of larger forces that control our economic fate. When oil prices spike, we helplessly take another financial hit.

The energy internet promises to help us be more energy efficient, save money, in some cases make money, and enjoy more comfort and automation in our homes.

However, so far, consumers haven’t shown much interest in taking charge of their energy use, even in fundamental ways. Perhaps this is because the concept of energy democratization seems remote and speculative – to those who think about it at all. I’m reminded of the nascent days of the Internet, when futurists made lofty claims that it would change banking, shopping and the workplace, and even revolutionize politics worldwide through an inexorable flow of information. At the time, most of us still saw the computer as little more than a difficult-to-use word processing machine.

Apple Computer changed that by making the computer more user-friendly. Opower (andsimilar companies) is the Apple of the energy internet, in that it’s figuring out ways to give energy efficiency technologies consumer appeal. Opower does this by tapping into oursocial instincts and playing on our sense of community, camaraderie and even competition to incite us to pursue energy efficiency in our homes.

But the work is being done community by community, so it’s slow going. So far Opower has sent its home energy report – a key ingredient of its method – to 3 million households. How to speed it up? That’s where Facebook comes into play, with its 800 million worldwide users all meeting and socializing in one big virtual spot.

Opower intends to use Facebook to set up friendly competitions among households. If yours is one of the 60 US utilities that already partners with Opower, you’ll be able to download your home’s actual energy use from Facebook, compare it against similar households and chart your progress with regular updates from your utility. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the third leg of the partnership, will provide environmental information.

Opower envisions social networking groups and communities forming around their new energy knowledge. These groups could have a significant impact on the success or defeat of energy efficiency products and businesses. Think about how fast video gets passed around Facebook of cats doing cute things. That could instead be word of a hot, new energy product. Or conversely news could go viral of the light bulb that burns out too quickly or the appliance that fails to live up to its promise. Energy efficiency companies will need to be on their toes.

The partnership plans to launch the new venture early next year in the Chicago area through Commonwealth Edison. It’s fair to assume that many will ‘like’ it.

Elisa Wood’s Facebook page is Energy Efficiency Insights. Please ‘like’ it.

Innovators 'home' in on energy

By Elisa Wood
October 12, 2011

Fortunately for the rest of us, some people missed the message, the one that says we’re in an economic slide so slippery there is no climbing back up.

I had a chance to speak to several of these optimists recently. No, they are not members of the Pollyanna Club; they are green energy entrepreneurs, those who are innovating and growing companies as the rest of the world downsizes. (See Energy Entrepreneurs Flock to Renewables Bonanza in Renewable Energy World magazine.)

These are folks that can’t stop creating no matter how mucky our outlook. In fact, problems seem to incite their inventiveness.

Their inventions are diverse; as are they, but their activities are converging into some trends.

• Silicon Valley and the energy industry are teaming up more and more. “You can’t throw a softball around here without hitting another solar company,” said Dan Shugar, Solaria’s chief operating officer, from Silicon Valley.
• Energy is producing its own crop of rising Mark Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs, who I suspect will be the next generation of business legends.
• Perhaps most significant, a lot of today’s innovation focuses on bringing consumers and businesses greater efficiency and control over energy in their homes and businesses, whether through cell phone apps that let you adjust your thermostat while miles away, financing mechanism that make solar affordable to the rest of us, or windows that generate electricity on two sides, using a form of artificial photosynthesis that takes advantage of both the sun outside and the electric lights indoors.

These are just a few of the new energy innovations that focus on what’s right here in my home or even in the palm of my hand. Getty Images, which studies how energy companies speak to consumers through pictures, calls this new trend “Homing in on Green.”

“While pictures of wind turbines and oil rigs remain popular, Getty Images has seen a marked 40 percent increase in images that showcase efforts to ‘go green’ on a smaller scale – for example, images of people swapping old light bulbs for energy efficient counterparts, neighborhoods with solar paneled roofs, families drying laundry outside, rather than relying on technology,” said Getty Images in announcing the third edition of its research report, The Curve.

Are these images actually getting through to people? Do consumers have any sense of the magnitude of change occurring in energy and how it will affect their day-to-day lives? It seems not. Most people are not even aware of federal and state financial incentives they can receive if they integrate new energy technologies into their lives, according to a survey sponsored manufacturer Emerson. Among the 1,007 US adults who participated in the September 2011 poll, 61% were unaware of the financial assistance available.

So, while big things are happening in energy; consumers by-in-large don’t know it yet. But the changes are coming, this time right to our doorsteps – and even if we’re not at home, we’ll be able to let them in, using probably just our cell phones.

Elisa Wood is co-author of the report, “Energy Efficient Lighting Explained: A guide for business people who aren’t lighting techies.”

Energy Efficiency Economics: Beyond 101

By Elisa Wood
October 5, 2011

At first blush, the economics of energy efficiency seem straightforward.

A business installs lighting controls or some other improvement. The business then sees its energy costs drop. From the savings, the business repays the investment over weeks, months or years, and then turns a profit on the asset.

While that equation holds true, analysts increasingly value the worth of energy efficiency in other more complex ways as well. The energy efficiency industry, for example, is creating new jobs. Energy efficiency also improves US energy intensity, the amount of energy it takes to support each dollar of economic activity.

And now a report by PwC links a business’ sustainability story with its success undertaking an initial public offering (IPO) before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“It literally can pay to ask: if the company files its registration statement with the SEC tomorrow, what sustainability and corporate responsibility story would it tell to prospective shareholders?” says ‘Factoring Sustainability into IPO Planning: Disclosure trends reveal a changing landscape,’ by PwC Transaction Services.

The report looked at 120 IPO-related filings before the SEC from 2010 and early 2011 across eight industries sectors. PwC found that companies are increasingly addressing energy efficiency and other sustainability issues as part of a larger corporate accountability trend.

In fact, over 84% of IPO filings had some level of disclosure related to sustainability – and not just because they were required to do so by regulators. About 68% of sustainability disclosures came about for other reasons, such as in discussions about weather-related risk or to showcase corporate accomplishment. A full one-third of companies in the consumer sector reported either energy efficiency or emissions reductions programs.

Moreover, the report found public companies, in general, now focus more dollars on sustainability efforts. Roughly $1 of $8 under professional management in the U.S. today involves a strategy of socially responsible investing. In addition, such investments are trending upward. While the universe of professionally managed assets rose only 1% during 2007-2010, assets related to sustainable and socially responsible investing grew 13%.

The report says that companies can increase value when going public by capitalizing on sustainability efforts. PwC recommends that before undertaking an IPO companies develop a clear understanding of how their sustainability story positions them against competition and enhances their appeal to investors. Companies also should consider how sustainability programs can increase revenue and decrease expenses for their goods and services.

This advice comes at a time when IPOs appear to be on the rise after losing steam following the 2008 collapse in financial markets. While there has been some recent volatility, a “robust pipeline” of companies remains in the process of going public as of third quarter 2011, according to a separate PwC report. And as they do so, their energy efficiency becomes an increasingly important part of the economic story they present to the investment world.