Report: Efficiency investment opportunities abound

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Bill Campbell

Portland-based Equilibrium Capital Group and its portfolio company Energy Resource Management, co-published a report with the Center for American Progress Tuesday to highlight the top 10 U.S. states with innovative energy policies that support investments in energy efficiency.

The report, “Efficiency Works: Creating Good Jobs and New Markets Through Energy Efficiency,” names Connecticut, California and Maryland as the top three states poised to lead energy efficiency markets. Absent from the top 10 is Oregon, which ranks 21st. Washington ranks 22nd.

The relatively low ranking is due in part to Oregon's low energy prices which make it more difficult for energy efficiency projects to deliver a large return on investment.

"The core insight of this report is that efficiency is actually energy," said Bill Campbell, partner at Equilibrium, chairman of Energy Resource Management and co-author of the report. "But it hasn't been treated as energy in how it has been financed."

Campbell pointed out that utilities plan their demand-side resources — basically efficiency measures that reduce the demand for energy — right alongside supply-side resources such as generation facilities.

"When you consider the cost of delivering an additional kilowatt hour, energy efficiency turns out to be a low-cost energy source," Campbell said.

Portland-based Energy Resource Management bills itself as an independent power producer that will harness efficiency through the deployment of large-scale building upgrades to be provided as a utility-grade source of power.

The report states that energy efficiency investments will:

• • Create 625,000 sustained full-time jobs over a decade.
• • Spark $500 billion in new investments to upgrade 50 million homes and office buildings.
• • Generate as much as $64 billion a year in cost savings for U.S. ratepayers, freeing consumers to spend their money in more productive ways.