The United States consumes a staggering amount of energy. So it is heartening to see businesses taking conservation seriously as a way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil while making themselves more profitable.
Highlighted in this week’s issue is a three-year-old Providence company called Energy Source, a consulting firm with offices in three locations (a fourth is on the way).
It is finding success helping commercial electricity users assess their energy needs and then showing them how to save. Just by installing new light bulbs and tubes, for example, a company can save up to 20 percent on its electricity bills.
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In some cases, Energy Source clients may cover their investment in new lighting and other efficiency instruments within two years.
And Energy Source is one of more than a dozen contractors that National Grid licenses to perform “energy audits.” That is twice as many as five years ago.
For the utility, the motivation is that if the draw on the power grid decreases, the need to build new power plants and add new transmission capacity also decreases. That means less capital has to be invested, less construction financed. And it frees capital to be invested in new enterprises that can use the new, excess capacity.
There is no question that growing the state’s economy demands more energy, or more efficient energy use. The more we can nourish economic expansion without increasing our reliance on highly volatile sources of oil, the better off we all will be.
