Reichart Lesson 3 – Energy Efficiency

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1. What types of policies on the part of government could promote energy efficiency?

The government has a prime role to promote a policy which would drive the economy towards energy efficiency and sustainability. Businesses which are functioning within their proper niche would have no reason to promote or create energy efficient products unless a large changed needed to be made. It is only through a combination of major policy changes, and consumer demand that businesses will make a transition towards more efficient products.

For example:

  • Residential buildings REQUIRE certain amounts of insulation throughout the home (policy change) AND homeowners like to be warm and save money on heating during the winter (demand). Therefore businesses such as CertainTeed are doing well selling insulation.
  • To the contrary, limited to my locality, there has not been a demand of strictly electric cars. Although there are tax breaks (policy change), finding a charging station would be a major inconvenience as the closest one is about 40 miles away (lack of demand).

Finally one of the coolest things that the government is doing is promoting low energy and sustainable building policies. Look at the Department of Energy’s Race to Zero. The program itself was designed to:

2. How would you develop a business that has the potential to move this idea forward?

I feel that consulting firms will have a giant market in the future. Energy prices will continue to rise and homeowners/ businesses will continue to use more energy in spite of having energy efficient items (see chart below). We are reaching a point that there will be a major demand seeking the knowledge of energy efficiency on both a small and large scale. Through a combination of energy auditing, life-cycle cost analyses, and up to date knowledge of sustainable tax incentives a consulting firm could do quite well.USA compared to China historical energy use

-Reichart

Rosling, Hans. Gapminder World. Vers. 0.0.7. Stockholm: Http://www.gapminder.org/, n.d. Computer software.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory & Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “BUILDERS CHALLENGE GUIDE TO 40% Whole-House Energy Savings in the Cold and Very Cold Climates.” BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES PROGRAM (n.d.): n. pag. Feb. 2011. Web.

“Residential Buildings Integration.” Residential Buildings Integration. Energy.gov, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.

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About Frank Michael Reichart

My name is Frank (Michael) Reichart. I currently live in Cambridge Springs PA, it is a small town about an hour South of Lake Erie and PSU Behrend. When I look back to think about what made me want to obtain a degree in the sustainability field, it is actually really unclear. At first I always felt that I had to do something business related, and never even gave anything else a fighting chance. Nearly everybody in my family has or has had a business of their own, so I just always thought that I would, as well. But it was in 2009 that I took my first class about the planet at PSU Behrend,and I have to admit that I just soaked it up like a sponge. Even after leaving Behrend for two years I continued to do research and learn what I could about energy and the Earth. So now I am back at PSU and studying in a field that I am passionate about and am very excited. -Mike Reichart

2 thoughts on “Reichart Lesson 3 – Energy Efficiency”

  1. Hello Mike,
    You’re very right about the need for demand to drive an industry. Do you think that though everyone would say that they love energy efficiency that when push comes to shove they still aren’t ready to tackle the big issues of being energy efficient? The demand for easy to use ‘green’ products is there but will that be enough to bring down the amount of energy we use? I really liked your chart that shows while we become more efficient with our energy that we are still using more than at any time in the past. Figuring out reduction is the tricky piece of our energy puzzle.
    Laura
    Here’s the link to my post!
    http://engr312.dutton.psu.edu/2014/09/14/building-energy-efficiency-for-the-consumer-hammonds/

    • Laura,

      You bring up the question the same question that I keep asking myself. At the end of the day, are we collectively, ready to tackle the giant issue of becoming more energy efficient? We, as in the students in this course seem to be in progress, but are our neighbors? How about our families, are they ready to make some changes?

      So sorry I do not have answer, because I ask myself the same question. I know that I am ready to make some changes (and I have). I know that I tell people about ways to become more energy efficient and why it is important. But, I also know that right this minute I am typing on a computer with the largest power supply that I have ever had, which obviously use more energy.

      Like you said, figuring out reduction is going to be very tricky.

      Mike Reichart

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