Newish US mega-ESCO Serious Energy has made quite the splash this morning.

Serious Energy, Inc., a leader in energy efficiency solutions that increase the value of buildings, today announced it has retained the Clean Energy practice group of Grubb & Ellis Company, a leading real estate services and investment firm, to identify opportunities with occupiers and owners across the U.S. interested in making energy efficiency upgrades to their buildings.

Grubb & Ellis will introduce Serious Energy's building upgrade service at zero cost to building owners.

Greentechmedia provides some good background and here's the full spread of coverage from google news. Nice to see some fire in the ESCO market, even if there doesn't seem to be anything new here. The Bloom Box of the ESCO world?

CHP summary

Vimal Bhana, Technical Director of Self Energy UK, recently gave a presentation on CHP at CIBSE, which is a nice summary of issues.

Buildings particularly well suited to CHP are: hospitals, hotels, swimming pools, leisure centres and universities. In all cases, the criteria for good quality CHP are: a year round demand for heat; the primary source of heat being the CHP system with backup boilers only supplying any remaining heat demand; and the CHP should run for a large proportion of the time so it is economically feasible.

There are numerous examples of successful CHP installations that have achieved excellent cost and CO2 savings. Liverpool University connected a 3.6MWe CHP system to 30 of its buildings in 1986 at a cost of £2.1M. They achieved savings of £416,000 each year which resulted in a payback of 5 years. Marriott Hotels have made 23 CHP installations since 1993 and are saving over £550,000 each year. Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham installed a 4.9MWe gas turbine in 1998 under an energy services contract and is saving £350,000 annually.

Johnson Controls explains Performance Contracting

In a handy whitepaper from earlier this year [PDF].

The private sector is quickly discovering what public agencies have known for years: That retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency brings substantial rewards.

ESCOs in developing countries

Just came across this academic paper that may be of interest to some.

Despite the simplicity of the [ESCO] concept, they have yet to gain a significant foothold in many developing countries. This paper examines the potential for ESCOs in developing countries, focusing on barriers to their growth and measures that can be undertaken to eliminate those barriers.

Energy conservation isn't a five year payback?

Not according to Mike Burt.

“There are significant savings opportunities, but unlike commodity savings, they won’t be achieved in a year. It will take 10-15 years for the big savings to be realised and it’s difficult for ministers to grasp this as they deal in four-year time frames,” Burt told delegates.

I'm not sure I agree, but Burty's not explicit about what kind of retrofits and baseline he's talking about.

MUSH!

My new favourite acronym.

Energy service companies, or ESCOs, will see 26% annual growth from 2009-2011 with revenue reaching $7.1 to $7.3 billion, the report estimates. ESCOs are private companies that typically offer energy savings improvements under long-term performance contracts.

How are they getting so much business in this depressed real estate market? A lot of it – nearly 70% — comes from what the industry fondly calls its MUSH market — municipal and state governments, universities, schools and hospitals.

ConEdison storming the US

They've been approved as an ESCO in 14 US states.

The energy efficiency projects that ConEdison Solutions undertakes on behalf of government institutions are typically managed through a process called energy performance contracting. Under such agreements, government entities pursue energy efficient initiatives without paying upfront capital costs.

Self Energy has hired

Fast-growing Self Energy UK have hired a new associate.

Self Energy UK has appointed Daniel Matson as Sustainable Energy Performance Systems Developer under a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) agreement with the London South Bank University (LSBU). Daniel will work with the Self Energy management team to reduce investment risk for the company and to develop decision support tools and further improve cost and savings forecasts for its clients. Daniel is based in the UK, but will also work with Self Energy’s other international offices. He will simultaneously be sponsored by LSBU through a Masters programme.

Daniel is a recent graduate from the University of Edinburgh, having achieved a first-class Masters degree in Electrical & Mechanical Engineering. During his degree, he was able to gain some valuable work experience at a number of different engineering organisations, including Rolls- Royce and IHC Engineering Business.

Sounds like a good deal all round. Best of luck to Daniel and the SEUK team!

CRC advisory companies

Just came across Greenstone who are offering CRC consultancy.

Greenstone’s Carbon Consultants will work with your organisation to understand the requirements of the CRC, ensure the required data and supporting documentation are identified, calculate a baseline measurement using our Acco2unt solution and develop an ongoing CRC strategy.

For companies that are new to CRC and not sure of their exposure and required actions Greenstone has a CRC Readiness Assessment service which helps organisations to understand their potential exposure under the CRC scheme.

Presumably there are other companies offering this pre-ESCO service? Can anyone point me towards some?

Fontenergy are hiring!

Casey Cole's looking for an Energy consultant / project engineer.

Work alongside our director in the London office to drive forward our ESCO, consultancy, and containerised plant room businesses. Carry out options appraisals; provide strategic energy advice to clients...

Etc. etc. Standard ESCO stuff. Sounds like a great job (with Italians and French particularly encouraged to apply!)