The five billion euro question should be...where's ROI? The European Court of Auditors was not looking for Elmo recently they were looking for return on investment for the five billion Euros (6.7 billion US dollars) spent through the European Union's Cohesion Policy Fund. "The Cohesion is a European Union regional policy that provides a framework for financing a range of projects intended to encourage economic growth in member states. Since 2000, the EU, through its Cohesion Policy funds, spent about $5 billion ($6.7 billion) for co-financing energy efficiency measures in member states."
 
"After assessing whether the energy-efficiency investments were cost-effective, the European Court of Auditors determined that the funds were not well spent and that the planned payback period for the investments was 50 years on average - and up to 150 years in certain cases." This seemed to me to the biggest story you never heard this year. The importance of this announcement is magnified by the need for the European Union to spend Euros wisely. The EU will not encourage economic growth with those returns. The Court of Auditors looked at twenty four energy efficiency projects for public buildings and they found that project managers did not have "rational objectives in terms of cost-effectiveness"
 
The sad truth is that the European Union's Cohesion Policy Fund is certainly not alone. It seems that reality seldom reflect the many "up to 50% energy savings" and similar claims. But in these times of confusing claims, there are some very positive developments. In a recent Time magazine article "Smart Power: Why More Bytes Will Mean Fewer-and Cleaner-Electrons", it states that "Cutting energy waste is...first and foremost a data challenge." It adds that "Thanks to the growth of smart sensors and the big data they produce-along with new companies that know how to crunch that information-energy users from huge factories down to individual households can track and reduce waste in a way that simply wasn't possible just a few years ago."
 
There is no reason for missing the efficiency goal in this environment. To create significant energy savings you need to know how most of the energy is being used and address it. Energy Efficiency Done Right has created for our company and our customers an Energy Savings Calculations Task Force of energy professional to create spread sheets using detailed building data to estimate energy consumption reductions. We then plan to benchmark window insulator installations to show that each installation met or exceeded the cost savings estimation. Our goal is to have varied building types benchmarked in many different climate zones to prove the level of cost reductions that should be anticipated. This will be very valuable information for building owners, managers, utility companies and ESCOs.
 
The correct answer to the five billion Euro question is within our reach when we focus on energy consumption and energy demand reduction. ROI needs to be an integral part of the planning and then the results anticipated will be the results achieved or exceeded.
 
 
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EU Cohesion Policy Energy Investments 'Not Cost Effective' Energy Manager Today 1/15/13