California Gets a Boost for Energy and Water Efficiency

Energy efficiency is on the rise again. After declining in the nineties, investment is back up for a number of reasons. According to ACEEE, investment hit a peak in 1992 of around $2 billion, then dropped to $1 billion in 1999, before picking up again to the point where in 2013, combined spending in gas and electric efficiency programs exceeded $7 billion.

Chris Hummel, CMO of Schneider Electric, recently wrote of the resurgence in The Guardian. He attributes increased awareness, improved technology, widespread availability of products and services, and improved business models as the reasons behind the movement.

Of the latter, he notes that PACE programs, Property-Assessed Clean Energy financing, had run into problems recently, when it was determined that the loans could not be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they created liens against the properties.

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RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post. You can follow RP on Twitter, @RPSiegel.