While Helping Reduce Global Warming

Companies throughout the world have become increasingly interested in reducing their rising energy costs while also reducing greenhouse emissions and protecting the environment as global warming has become a major area of concern over the last decade. One of the major concerns that business owners and executives have is that many of the alternative energy sources, such as solar power and micro turbines, can be cost prohibitive due to the large investment required to implement the solutions. Most companies evaluate investment decisions based on their return on investment, or ROI. Even though they may want to do the "right thing" from an environmental standpoint, it is difficult to justify implementing solutions that have ten to twenty year ROI's.

In the past, energy costs have been relatively inexpensive in the United States compared to other countries in the world. However, energy costs have increased substantially over the last several years, which have had a significant impact on the bottom line for many companies. In some parts of the United States, electricity rates have increased by 30% or more in just one year!

Many believed that deregulation would provide lower rates to customers by creating competition. However, in almost every situation, this has not been the case. In the state of Virginia, for example, deregulation was so unsuccessful that legislation was recently passed that essentially gave the dominant electric utility a monopoly in their service areas.

The good news is that there are many opportunities for companies to implement solutions that greatly reduce greenhouse emissions, while also reducing energy costs and improving the bottom line. Many of these beneficial solutions are great investments solely from a financial perspective and provide rates of return in the range of eighteen months to four years. In some cases, utility companies provide rebates for installing these systems which accelerates the payback time frames. The Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 also provides federal tax incentives for implementing many of these solutions, which also is attractive to business owners and executives when evaluating these investments.

These new, cost effective, and environmentally friendly technologies are coming to market almost every day; however, most businesses simply don't know they exist. These technologies not only provide hard dollar savings directly related to energy costs; they also help reduce maintenance costs and equipment replacement cost. This is due to the fact that these energy savings technologies allow the equipment they treat to operate more efficiently after installation.

About the author: Kevin Hall is the founder and CEO of US Energy Solutions and Degree Technologies. He specializes in helping companies identify and implement energy savings solutions that have attractive financial and environmental benefits. For more information visit www.usenergysolutions.net or www.degreetechnologies.net