Invest in Energy Efficiency Instead of New Supply

With oil continuing to wash ashore in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 senators and 35 representatives are demanding a ban or moratorium on offshore oil drilling.  Hearings are underway to investigate the Massey Mine disaster, which killed 29 miners and reminded America of the risks and cost of coal extraction.  The Department of the Interior’s approval of Cape Wind’s application to harness wind off the coast of Massachusetts has detractors pledging to tie the process up for years in the courts.

Without a doubt, we will need new sources of supply.  But with promising new supplies requiring significant time and capital to design, build and install at any meaningful scale, the search for more energy needs to begin with a search for more efficiency.

Yet last year alone the venture capital industry invested more than $2.6 billion in supply-side technologies.  While these investments may pay dividends in the long run, they dwarf the $400 million of the VC investment in energy efficiency that can yield dividends today.

According to the Energy Information Administration, America’s demand for energy compared to our GDP makes us the 137^th most energy-efficient country in the world.  The good news is that it’s not hard to find energy waste, and many of the tools and technologies we need to become more efficient already exist, which gets me to my point.

Ultracapacitors is an existing technology that is a cleaner, cheaper way to meet our needs for energy efficiency.  The cost of a company investing in energy efficiency such as ultracapacitors is more efficient and is on average five times less than an investment in a new energy supply.  There are huge new market applications just waiting to be discovered. 

Ultracapacitors are an enabling technology for reliable, energy-efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-compatible solutions for automotive, heavy transportation, renewable energy and industrial OEMs seeking to respond to those market drivers.  For example, we are collaborating with Continental AG, one of the world’s leading automotive electronics and mechatronics suppliers, who is using the Maxwell ultracapacitor as the energy storage element of a voltage stabilization system (VSS) for automobiles.  Stop-start systems reduce fuel consumption and emissions by shutting off the car’s internal combustion engine as the vehicle slows and seamlessly restarts the engine when the driver engages the clutch or touches the accelerator.  Continental AG is marketing the voltage stabilization system it has developed to its automotive OEM customers.

As I mentioned earlier, recent events have made it clear just how hard it will be to build any new energy infrastructure – clean or dirty.  Yes, we will need new sources of energy.  But until then, it is easier and better for the environment to use enabling technologies such as ultracapacitors where we can do more with less.  That’s the energy solution companies should be investing in today.