3 ways to save on energy costs and emissions as a company – WISE. Energy

As a business, you face the double challenge of managing fluctuating energy costs and meeting carbon reduction targets. These challenges demand proactive energy management strategies that align with both financial and environmental objectives to meet these objectives, allowing to save on energy costs and cut carbon emissions.

In this context, finding alternatives to traditional & carbon-intensive energy sources is a must for any business looking to be more resilient. Luckily, we have solutions. Implementing the following strategies can reduce energy bills by up to 75% yearly.

1. Installing renewable energy sources

The best option for installing renewable energy depends on the specific characteristics of your company’s location and local resources.

A key aspect is to ensure that renewable energy production and consumption are as close as possible. This way, you will purchase as little energy from the grid as possible and reach higher decarbonisation levels.

While solar panels are often the easiest and most cost-efficient solution to produce renewable energy, they are not the only option. Other renewable energy sources might also be effective depending on your business’s specific needs and conditions. Here are the three alternatives to carbon-intensive energy for companies:

• Wind turbines: they can produce energy more consistently than solar panels, which depend on sunlight availability. They can also significantly lower carbon emissions – a typical 2 MW wind turbine avoids around 4,000-4,500 tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of more than 700 cars.
• Biomethane production: this is especially useful for businesses and industries that generate organic waste, allowing them to produce their biomethane and lower their carbon footprint and energy costs – as for emissions, compared to EU fossil fuels, biomethane can save up to 202% of GHG emissions.
• Geothermal heat pumps: stable temperatures can be found underneath a company’s location in particular locations. This allows a company’s heat pump to be more energy efficient regardless of the season. In other words, it absorbs heat from the ground to warm buildings during the winter and reverses the process in the summer, expelling indoor heat into the ground to cool the building.

It’s important to consider that installing new technologies has an embodied carbon footprint, which refers to the total carbon emissions associated with the equipment’s production, transportation, and installation. Therefore, choosing long-lasting technologies is crucial to maximise carbon reduction over time. WISE. Energy can help determine and install the best solution for your business.

2. Using heat and electricity storage technologies

While installing renewable energy sources is beneficial, you can further optimise and increase your energy production by storing heat and electricity when it makes the most sense. Without them, you may not fully benefit from these technologies and experience suboptimal performance.

Storing heat and electricity produced is fundamental to avoiding wasting precious energy and decarbonising your energy. For example, a Belgian brewery would benefit more from storing solar energy surplus by heating a specific tank instead of injecting it back into the grid, where they would get little revenue or even pay an injection tax.

You can also use electric or heat batteries to store energy when electricity is at the most cost-efficient price and a lower carbon intensity. Besides having the power of controlling when you want to consume that energy, you also become less dependent on the volume of energy you buy from the grid. As a result, you become more resilient and independent from potential surges in energy prices.

3. Implementing energy consumption and storage optimisation software

Lastly, implementing a renewable optimisation system is vital to better matching renewable production and consumption. With the right conditions, annual energy costs can be reduced by up to 70%. WISE. Energy’s Wise.Brain 🧠 allows you to do that, among other things:

• Matching consumption with production hour by hour: the optimisation software ensures that every kilowatt-hour produced is used optimally “at the wise time”. For example, you can automatically store or use energy when it is at its lowest price & carbon-intensive point.
• Reducing peak demand: as the energy grid becomes more heavily used, companies may face additional costs or need to upgrade their local grid infrastructure. These technologies can help you flatten these energy peaks and avoid paying higher grid taxes or infrastructure costs.
• Centralising energy data and sharing: Integrating all electric and heat appliances into a single management tool allows synchronised energy usage. You can also visualise different sites into one dashboard and ensure you share renewable energy between locations at the best price and carbon-intensive point.

These strategies can benefit any company consuming energy. Businesses with solar or wind production and an excellent demand for heat or electricity will find these measures particularly relevant.

WISE. Energy’s mission is to decarbonise companies’ energy consumption by implementing solutionw to ensure an accurate match between renewable energy production and consumption. They also install additional storage or production capacity and advise companies over the years on how to get the best out of their energy plants.

 

 

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