May 4th, 2010

When it comes to Energy Efficiency, Do We Need Walmart?

BOSTON -

Most of my friends have never heard of Mass SAVE, but my good friend Tom signed up for a Mass SAVE energy audit.  The auditor spent half an hour in his place, promised big rebates, and Tom agreed to have weatherization and insulation work done.  Four weeks later (two days before the scheduled work), Tom got a call from a customer service representative informing him that he no longer qualified for the rebate and would have to spend an extra $1700 out-of-pocket.  “Never mind.”  Said Tom.

Let’s assume the end goal is an enormous wave of energy efficiency retrofits.  Looking at that end goal from an entrepreneur’s perspective, regardless of your political views, isn’t the current setup in Massachusetts almost comically bad?  And MA has one of the best programs in the country.

I think there’s a fear of spending the money too fast and administering a huge program like that is clumsy.  There’s always a balance between wanting to spend the money and fear of spending it badly.  I think fear is winning.  We need to find alternate routes around these programs and not rely on them to fix everything.

Here’s a thought exercise: How might Walmart make energy efficiency easy and affordable for homeowners?  I know Walmart is evil, but what might they get right that we’re currently getting wrong?

Tagged Energy Efficiency, masssave, walmart |