Providing A Balanced Approach to Energy Management

Energy optimization and cost control, reduction in carbon, reduction in greenhouse gases, and improved efficiencies all need to work together for the benefit of the whole. Without going into too much detail one of our clients charged us to evaluate 25 different technologies and evaluate the pros and cons of each technology, rating them from 1 to 10. The spreadsheet that was developed allowed us to evaluate technologies on a very level playing field, looking at technologies from around the world. This evaluated commercially available technologies for efficiency, throughput, sizing, matching application to requirement, carbon reduction, maintenance, operating costs, availablitiy of REC's and Carbon Credits, just to name a few of the key parameters. Evaluating energy systems, especially in an industrial application, can get us to evaluate near optimum applications very quickly.

We do get myopic thinking about the energy technologies in the US and think that is the only technology to be considered. Other countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweeden, the UK, and others have more advance technologies in certain areas, such as CHP and District Heating. These should be considered carefully and knowledge gleaned wherever possible.

Of course, we all know that any energy that can be saved is energy that does not need to be produced. But considering that energy will need to be needed for the future developement of our clients needs in plants or regions, energy will need to be produced, whether it is hydro, biomass, fossil, oil fired, nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar or some other form of energy. Each of these needs to be carefully considered as either a base load energy source or a topping source of energy. There are many out there want to see alternative energy as the solution for our energy issues, but in reality the way I see it is a melding of the energy opportunities that will allow the country to get us back to a positive growth position again. What I am saying is the oil is not the sole answer, natural gas is not the sole answer, biomass is not the only answer, solar is not the only answer, hydro is not the only answer, wind is not the only answer, nuclear is not the only answer, but rather all of these need to work in concert for a successful energy policy and approach. Economics and practicality is what drives the success of the energy supply and needs in the marketplace.

There are risks and returns for each of these technologies. These need to be evaluated carefully using good engineering practices and move forward with a predicatable schedule and approach. This is important in the big picture.

What do you think?