Are We All Barking Up The Wrong Trees?

Problem

 According to the eia, about 40% of total U.S. energy consumption occurs in residential and commercial sectors. The edf confirms, that buildings use nearly 40% of all energy in the United States and generate more than 1/3 of greenhouse gases. This makes improving energy efficiency in buildings critical – and we should focus our energy on fighting climate change, where it counts the most. 

 The world took notice. The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 lead to the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change. It represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties - attending it.

Some of the past accords, such as Kyoto - require on-going support, involvement, and buy-in from various governments and policymakers. And yet, there are much simpler strategies of focusing on “doing more with less” – and such fit extremely well the most recent C-40 initiative.

 C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) connects 90 of the world’s greatest cities, representing 650+ million people and one-quarter of the global economy.

 Created and led by cities, C40 is focused on tackling climate change and driving urban action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks - while increasing the health, wellbeing and economic opportunities of urban citizens. 

Fighting climate change has reached the tipping point. The only question is: are we fighting energy EFFICIENCY with the most EFFICIENT ways to do so?

The potential energy efficiency market in cities is estimated at $1.4 trillion. But high costs and unavoidable complexities created the perception that energy savings and financial returns calculations - are hard to quantify, and subjective.

 Such uncertainties created a major barrier to investment in energy efficiency by building owners and investors. For example, it explains, why a mature geothermal technology managed to capture only 1% of the entire heating/cooling market.

 Now, not that there is a shortage of guidance and established standards to promote energy efficiency. LEED, Energy Star, and ICP - are just a small subset of available frameworks. The only problem is: you need to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND – to get all your Brownie Points…

 However, the above barriers and high upfront costs – make business owners reluctant to proceed. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt make actual investments in new energy-efficient equipment a mere fraction of what’s possible.

Solution

 Commercial buildings include a variety of building types—offices, hospitals, schools, police stations, places of worship, warehouses, hotels, shopping malls, and more. According to the eia, different commercial building activities have unique energy needs, but as a whole, Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) accounted for about 50% to 80% of the total energy use in commercial buildings.

Fortunately, energy efficiency entrepreneurs realized, that it is possible to use dormant real estate assets such as concrete floors – as a low cost, rechargeable thermal energy battery. Using Building as a Battery (BAAB)? - offers a fresh perspective on reducing HVAC costs and complexity.

The use of concrete as a thermal storage medium allows for passive cooling and heating - when actively engaged. The active engagement of the concrete in thermal dynamics of the building system - is best achieved by using hollow-core precast concrete slabs. All slabs are treated as a medium of distribution of air through their cores, and thereby working as thermal storage.

When a thermal mass of the buildings is actively engaged for energy transfer, the stored heat in the buildings’ mass - can be used to compensate for heat losses in winter. In the summer, the cool night air can be circulated through the cores of the hollow core slabs - to absorb the next day's heat and reduce the need for intensive cooling. See below diagram:

Essentially, BAAB? can be viewed as a smart “floor kit” – consisting of energy storage AND radiant comfort. The sheer value of energy storage AND radiant heating & cooling - is much greater than the cost of the floor itself.

 Adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) to BAAB? systems further reduces power consumption. When intelligently controlled existing HVAC technologies are integrated with hollow-core slabs - the need for larger and more costly equipment is reduced by up to 40% to 50%.

Due to significant life-span of commercial buildings, the costs of operating & maintaining HVAC equipment - may exceed CapEx investment 4-5 times! 

One more thing – and please repeat after me: in addition to providing operational savings, BAAB? systems maintain comfortable temperatures during power outages – offering significant resiliency to the infrastructure. After extreme weather event takes place, radiant air conditioning systems of BAABs? maintain air quality and habitable temperatures - ensuring the economic viability of businesses and cities.

 Due to climate change, we are experiencing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions. It includes heavier rainfall, drought, extreme heat and cold - as well as unique events such as ice storms, and floods.

 Governments, cities, insurance companies and businesses are all seeking risk mitigation - linked to extreme weather. Intelligent BAAB? solutions will have a significant impact on reducing such risks.

 While the HVAC industry has significantly evolved over the last 30 years - it did so through a selective focus on …. its marketplace. As much as stand-alone HVAC efficiency improvements are impressive – all such advances are limited in scope. This is a direct result of cut-throat competition within HVAC silos.

 And yet, focusing on building competitive advantages within just one industry, distracts HVAC companies from reshaping it. It blocks creativity. To go beyond incremental improvement over what competitors do – requires leaping beyond industry silos & porting breakthrough solutions from unrelated fields to new markets! The HVAC industry is not an exception to such realities.

 They say: AI has the potential to be used in virtually every industry, and that it has the ability to reshape the way people live and do business. How true …it’s time to use it effectively inside BAABs?- to reduce energy usage, intelligently. 

While others focus on introducing and advertising new features of their energy efficiency offerings, BAABs? concentrates on End Benefits, and their emotional impact on clients – Peace of Mind! 

BAABs? value proposition is quite simple: “We can’t solve all the world’s problems, but we can put a smile on customer’s face when the energy bill arrives”

As per the powerful Blue Ocean Strategy? recipe, one must compete effectively in an overcrowded energy efficiency market, by meeting the following goals & objectives:

·     Eliminate – rising electricity costs & anxiety

·     Reduce – maintenance & replacement cost

·     Raise – comfort level

·     Create – natural disaster resiliency

For example BOMA and WBDG indicate that over a 30 year period, the ratio between operations and maintenance costs to initial building costs equals 3:1. BAAB? approach reduces such ratio to 1.8 - a reduction of 40%.

In stark contrast to the competition, BAABs?understands that one can expect only limited success, by controlling energy efficiency from a remote office - miles away from a building. BAABs?get down to visceral levels & deal with raw concrete to improve the outcome.

You want CONCRETE results? BAABs? get down to CONCRETE…

Oleg Feldgajer is President & CEO of Canada Green ESCO Inc. Oleg is positioning the company to become a leader in financing AI-enhanced green energy projects and ventures. CGE’s mission is to guide DISRUPTIVE businesses in ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION toward profitable business models. Oleg is passionate about such a mission, and firmly believes that without AI-based innovation, we will all prematurely choke on polluted air and dirty water. CGE delivers 100% financing (levered and unlevered) to its clients - and utilizes large equity pools, and non-recourse debt. Oleg offers creative, fresh ideas to open-minded businesses - that embrace both: logic AND opportunistic intuition. CGE stands against mediocrity & its modus operandi is quite simple: If CGE is not invited to join your BOD or Advisory Board – we failed!