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June 2010

Planet of the Alpha Ape – EE Killer

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, LEED No Comments
I know next to nothing, no, make that nothing about anthropology.  However, on several occasions I have read that throughout the animal kingdom, every social group, pack, pod, litter, colony, team, board of supervisors, has an alpha that leads the bunch. This holds true for humans although the outward authority of the alpha differs a lot from one group to another.  Take for example a board of directors for a non-profit, a school board, and for-profit enterprises.  The alpha may simply guide discussions at meetings, keep things on track and moving along and assist the group in coming to a…
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LEED and Immortality

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, LEED, Sustainability No Comments
I was recently reading a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal where the reader blasted ag biotech companies like Dow Chemical and Monsanto for creating “superweeds”.  Monsanto transformed crop farming with the development of Roundup herbicide, which kills practically anything with roots but is otherwise quite benign (oxymoron alert).  They later developed genetically modified seeds for plants that are immune to the weed killer.  But weeds, like bacteria, have morphed to become immune to Roundup.  The letter goes on to compare the superweeds to antibiotic–resistant organisms.  Except, nobody is going to be killed by a superweed.  So…
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Decoupling, Stupid

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 2 Comments
One way the utility business works like the rest of the economy is that it sells its products/commodities at a price that is higher than the cost of production, on average.  The more utilities sell, the greater their gross profit.  This is at odds with utilities’ incentive to save energy with energy efficiency programs.  As a result, some utility executives are opposed to energy efficiency programs.  That is a short-sighted view but that’s a story for a different day. As a result of this dichotomy, a pricing mechanism known as decoupling has been developed.  This NREL paper gives a pretty…
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Horse and Buggy EE Programs

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, Utility Stuff No Comments
In many states, energy efficiency programs are meeting annual savings goals and their incentive cash is depleted in a fraction of the year.  States where energy efficiency programs are a new offering are especially quick to meet goals.  These states include Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.  These states rely heavily on lighting, which accounts for somewhere in the range of 90% of the total savings.  Even mature states like Wisconsin and California still get well over half their savings from lighting and other prescriptive measures (rebates).  Wisconsin surpassed goals and ran out of incentives last program year. There are many ways…
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Heileman Brewery

By Archive No Comments
A cooling system that can’t keep up with beer demand is bad news for any brewery—as the Heileman division of Stroh Brewery Company found out. But an in-depth study of their cooling pump system, and an impeller trim, got their system back up to par while saving them $19,000 a year in energy costs. On top of that they now have a pumping system that’s twice as efficient. COOLING BEER IS HOT TOPIC “We couldn’t have as many fermenters on as we would like to have,” reports Dan Schaller, former plant engineer at the La Crosse facility. The system that…
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Ellsworth Creamery

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Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery used a performance optimization study performed by Michaels Engineering to take a close look at production processes.  In doing this, they found a source of inefficiency that was wasting over $1000 a month! Throughout the course of the study, Michaels was able to identify particular systems that should be changed to operate more efficiently.  The study revealed that the exhaust fan’s damper was partially closed to regulate airflow, and that slowing down the fan while opening the damper would achieve the same airflow using half the energy. Ellsworth followed the study’s recommendations, which ultimately saved them $12,000…
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Oil Slick Musings

By Energy Rant, Government, Sustainability No Comments
It’s been about a month since I prognosticated and reflected on the BP disaster in the golf.  Let’s see how things have unfolded.  My predictions: Political food fight Underestimated disaster Lack of “what if” on BPs part Where is the outrage? First, I said politicians would engage in a political food fight while Rome burns.   Sure enough, less than a week after that post, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee assembled a dog and pony show to poke executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton with a stick in the eye.  Actually, it was like a dog show alright –…
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