Web workout for energy efficiency

Opportunity Finder analyses energy, financial and employment gains Punch in your profile, and pull out your prospects. A new interactive website, launched in March by the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, should make it that easy for US civic leaders and citizens to check out their chances of cutting energy use while creating jobs. The Community Energy Opportunity Finder calculates the potential energy and dollar savings a town can make by implementing a given energy efficiency programme. The service, which provides the equivalent of a preliminary analysis by an energy consultant, also calculates job creation potential and reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. All a local authority officer or community group needs to do is input basic information about their city or town, including population, physical characteristics and industrial, commercial and residential energy usage statistics. The service also gives users an overview of the kinds of renewable energy sources that could power their community, and information on how to start energy projects, including case studies of successful programmes elsewhere and sources of information, advice, and funding. “Economic development professionals tend to focus exclusively on recruiting new businesses,” said Michael Kinsley, founder of RMI’s community services team. “Most simply don’t know that there are business development and job creation opportunities in energy efficiency and renewable energy.” The website cites an inspiring case study from Sacramento following the city’s 1987 vote to refuse to allow the municipal utility company to invest in a nuclear power station. The utility responded by helping customers use energy more efficiently, thus negating the need to generate the extra electricity. Unanticipated side effects included the creation of 880 new jobs and, thanks to falling utility bills, a rise in regional income of $124 million. - Polly Ghazi

3 June 2004

Polly Ghazi