Conserving energy and using various old and new energy sources in an environmentally sustainable way may be more of a Herculean task than rebuilding the world economy after the last World War. The way in which U.S. industries meet this challenge will determine firms' profitability.

Breadth of Challenge
"Energy is one of the grand challenges of our time," Mark Barteau, director of the University of Delaware and co-chair of the University's Strategic Planning Committee, recently claimed on a panel Challenges and Opportunities in Alternative Energy.

"Every day, the United States alone uses 20 million barrels of oil, 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 3 million tons of coal," the University of Delaware reporting on the panel said.

Barteau's claim of urgency is supported by the National Academy of Engineering's recent list of Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century. Solar and fusion energies made the list of 14 grand challenges, as did carbon sequestration and nitrogen-cycle management.

By the end of the century, the world will need three times the current energy production.

Why Efficiency First
"Energy efficiency and conservation offer the best payback," Barteau said. Each barrel of oil saved puts about a hundred dollars in our pocket and prevents about a thousand pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere, he added.

Indeed, finding ways to conserve energy can help companies reduce power wastage and therefore compete more aggressively.

When it comes to electricity, "new efficiencies in the electric power sector have the potential to cut the need for electric generation by 7 to 11 percent," according to recent findings by the Brattel Group.

Business Focus and Priority Strategies

Inefficient Equipment, Lighting and Construction
Although awareness of industrial energy conservation has grown, says Johnson Controls, transforming that awareness into investment and installation resembles tough slogging.

According to the automotive-interiors manufacturer and service provider of mechanical equipment:

While interest in energy efficiency and energy management has increased significantly from last year, related investments have remained steady. The most significant growth in energy efficiency measures including replacing inefficient equipment before the end of its useful life (41 percent, up 13 percent from 2007) and switching to energy-efficient lighting (78 percent, up 11 percent). Also 88 percent claim that energy efficiency is a design priority in construction and retrofit projects, up 11 percent from just a year ago.

Maintenance
"Facilities and manufacturers can reduce energy consumption by as much as 20 percent through maintenance programs that focus on energy efficiency," explains the U.S. Department of Energy.

Cutting energy use can permit companies to allocate scarce funds to other investments.

"Every kilowatt of energy you don't use goes right to your bottom line," Managing Automation reports.

Recycling and Cogeneration
If there is potential for recycling waste energy or cogeneration, the benefits may well lead to large returns from the investment.

When industries take advantage of these technologies, they "produce electricity at a better price per kilowatt hour than from electricity generated by central power plants, solar or wind power," Tom Casten, chairman of Recycled Energy Development, tells Green Building Community (Free registration required).

Training
By checking with nearby colleges and universities, a manufacturer may find training resources to improve the energy-efficiency skills employees need to cut energy waste.

Purdue University, for example, has a worker training and certification program (TAP) that "has helped hundreds of companies across Indiana to save millions of dollars in production costs."

The new training and certification program should be especially useful to facility engineers, plant managers, end users, purchasing agents, decision makers and other professionals who use or purchase energy in their respective plants, according to the technical assistance program at the university's Web site.

Energy Kaizens
It may be time to go on a "blitz," a focused and intense project to improve energy efficiency. The best part about this is most of us already know the process. In manufacturing organizations, collaboration processes are commonplace, and kaizen meetings are a considered-critical methodology used for team-based improvements.

A team associated with the process is assembled to work on improvements, and the meetings — structured collaborative events — build on the team and its combined experience's strengths.

"In the last 30 months we've been in 179 plants in the U.S., and we've identified 865 projects," an energy consultant recently told IndustryWeek of energy kaizen events. "They had an annual energy spend of $461 million, and we identified $45 million in savings with an average simple payback of two years or less."

Track Your Investments and Accomplishments
If you track investments and energy efficiency accomplishments, you should better learn if your progress meets expectations.

To help start this task, Flex Your Power, California's statewide energy efficiency marketing and outreach campaign, suggests aiming for these goals:

Energy efficiency upgrades can reduce energy by an estimated 30 percent. Improvements to facility steam systems can save 20 percent on energy bills. New technologies for motor systems can reduce energy by as much as 18 percent. Similar savings are available for improvements of both compressed air and process heating systems.

Reduced energy costs are key in keeping essentially every business competitive in today's global economy. How far along are you on your path to greater energy efficiency?

Resources

Alternative Energy Key to Powering America's Future
by Tracey Bryant
University of Delaware Daily May 11, 2008

Transforming America's Power Industry: The Investment Challenge - Preliminary Findings
by Peter S. Fox-Penner, Marc W. Chupka and Robert L. Earle
The Brattle Group, April 21, 2008

New Research Reveals Increased Interest in Energy Efficiency, But Limited Action
Johnson Controls Inc., April 14, 2008

New App Tracks Energy Efficiency of Assets
by Stephanie Neil
Managing Automation, March 26, 2008

Recycled Energy and Co-generation Could Power the Future
by Staci Matlock
ConnectPress (via Green Building Community), April 8, 2008

WIRED Industrial Energy Efficiency Program
Purdue University, Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Continuous Improvement Gets a Green Makeover
by Brad Kenney
IndustryWeek, Dec. 1, 2007

Industrial Sector: Invest in Energy Efficiency Now
Flex Your Power