Energy efficiency

Energy consumption rises, driven by economic growth and increasing prosperity in growth markets. China already consumes more energy than the United States. Even if sufficient sources of energy are available for the time being, higher production costs associated with tapping into new energy carriers will still result in higher energy prices. This in turn means that the efficient use of energy is becoming an economic necessity.

There are different approaches to meeting the challenges of energy policies: Either increase energy production or use existing energy more efficiently. Higher production can come from “old” or “new” energy sources. Old sources, for example, natural gas or coal are available in large quantities, but entail high levels of CO2 emissions. New sources such as wind, photo-voltaic systems or bio-mass are also available in sufficient quantities, but have significant cost disadvantages despite all the improvements over the past few years.

For our part, we concentrate our investments on energy efficiency. Profitable companies, using well-established technologies, capable of surviving on the market place under current energy prices, can be found here. And costs are the trump card for energy efficiency: It is considerably cheaper to save energy using improved technology than it is to produce additional energy using alternative methods.

Energy efficiency is also increasingly becoming a key topic in politics, as was aptly underscored by recent geopolitical events (regarding our dependence on energy suppliers). The accidents in Japan in March of 2011 further increased the urgency to meet energy-policy challenges.