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Energy efficiency is widely regarded as one of the most effective means to reducing carbon emissions – for good reasons. The built environment accounts for nearly 40% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and generally offers the most cost-effective reduction opportunities.
CarbonSolutions has helped businesses and governments create significant economic value by saving money, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and creating jobs in the process. In addition, we have co-developed a cutting-edge software platform for businesses, local governments, and utilities to track energy and carbon consumption, implement energy efficiency programs, and administer demand side management programs more effectively.
Below is a snapshot of a recent project we collaborated on. The result of this project was a website that allows every homeowner in Gainesville, Florida to track their electricity, water, and natural gas consumption, as well as their home’s carbon footprint.
CarbonSolutions can help you with all your energy efficiency needs. When it comes to energy efficiency, we have three distinct clients.
Businesses
We work with businesses of all sizes to help them leverage energy efficiency as a means to reducing their carbon footprint. We can audit your commercial and industrial properties to identify the most cost-effective reduction opportunities. Then, using a customizable software tool, we can help you monitor and report your success in terms of environmental and financial metrics.
Municipalities
Across the United States, municipalities are running high deficits due to the long-term effects of the economic downturn. Simultaneously, many local governments are looking to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy (EERE) as a means to lowering utility bills, reducing pollution, and creating green jobs in the process.
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing has become a viable solution for municipalities to implement EERE programs. This form of financing allows local governments to raise capital from the public and private sectors. The funds are then loaned to property owners who pay them back over 15 – 20 years, typically through a property tax assessment.
Harvard Business Review named PACE financing as one of the “Breakthrough Ideas for 2010” – for good reasons. EERE projects tend to have relatively short payback periods (generally 2 -5 years). Long-term financing (usually 15 – 20 years) reduces monthly payments; creating a net gain from day one (i.e. the energy savings are greater than the monthly loan payment). This has many benefits for homeowners and local governments.
CarbonSolutions and its partners have developed a turnkey solution to administering PACE programs. Our team of experienced professionals was formed to guide local governments every step of the way – from setting up the programs, to identifying the properties with the highest ROI, to monitoring, tracking, and reporting progress through customizable web-based software solutions.
Utilities
Demand side management (DSM) programs are becoming increasingly important for utilities as greenhouse gas regulations begin to take shape in the U.S. CarbonSolutions can help utilities administer their DSM programs more effectively through the use of web-based software solutions.
Our web-based software platform allows consumers to track their energy consumption, as well as the energy efficiency measures they take, and compare their consumption to others in the area. Combining energy utilization data with property characteristic data allows for meaningful comparisons between similar homes. Meanwhile, utilities can use the platform to monitor the effectiveness of their DSM initiatives on the back end. And for utilities that are concerned with making energy consumption data available to the public, energy usage reports can easily be mailed to customers instead.
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