As with politics, Energy Efficiency (EE), too, is local.
EE projects provide a robust return on investment and are more cost advantageous than investing in additional energy sources. Still, it isn’t possible to use the traditional power source model when using efficiency to tackle economic and environmental waste reduction—the option doesn’t exist to build a centralized “efficiency plant” that generates clean, base-load energy year after year. The reality is that EE is designed for disparate end-users, and can be embedded in commercial buildings and residential neighborhoods across the country. The cost of intervening in all of these discrete and distributed units is complex. So what’s a market-changing efficiency opportunist to do? The answer is similar to the political principle—keep it local.
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE)’s formal definition for market transformation (MT) offers a good, high-level view. MT is achieved when an increased market share of improved efficiency can be maintained even after incentives are removed. Many of the key ideas surrounding MT revolve around questions of how to go about accomplishing this goal.
Where to intervene in the market? With what? And for how long?
Clearly MT is not a simple goal for all areas of efficiency improvement, nor is it one that is likely to be attained with prescribed rules of thumb, or standard program design. Just as political candidates should be in touch with the priorities and interests of their constituents, so too is it essential that efficiency advocates understand the market factors of their particular product or sector.
Although explaining the myriad challenges to efficiency adoption in the marketplace could fill a book, a book isn’t required to see that many of the issues (price, availability, mindshare, etc.) are too big for any one city or town to address by themselves. Market forces create a multi-faceted and far-reaching interconnection among supply-and-demand actors. Because of this, successful market transformation, like a political party platform, requires a broad coalition of support. Working together with industry to craft a common vision that can be implemented and replicated has succeeded in the past—examples include home appliances and building envelope components. MT is also actively being pursued by many different players and across a broad array of goals.
The energy efficiency party occupies a large tent and it’s continuously getting bigger. Broad coordination and collaboration is required to overcome the strength of the market barrier’s incumbency. But just as political campaigns are won and lost according to the organizational strategy and strength of the ground game, the role of local jurisdictions is essential for achieving MT ambitions. The Technical Assistance Program is just one of many resources available to determine how best to contribute to efficiency goals while serving local energy constituents. Take advantage of the expert help available so you can accomplish MT efficiency goals on your home turf.
Content for this Blog post courtesy of Nick Lange, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation