I truly think Kentucky could become a leader in smart-grid and a leader in sustainability solutions,” said Jason DeLambre, a Certified Energy Manager and a partner in Midwest Clean Energy Enterprises (MCEE).
The other half of that partnership, Bobby Clark, said he’s identified about 200 key Kentucky decision makers on energy policy and practices.
“It would be manageable to have that number of people working from the same page”, he said.
The idea is that Kentucky could widely initiate and adopt best practices in energy efficiency and production, as it has done successfully with school buildings across the state. Clark and Delambre also point to the presence of leading energy research, policy and projects in Kentucky. They recently brought the attention of Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance to the state.
“I was incredibly impressed by the diversity of action and the number and types of organizations in Kentucky,” said Michael Mills, president of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA), speaking of energy projects in the state. Founded in 2006, SEEA partners with policymakers, utilities, governments, industry and non-governmental organizations to boost adoption of energy- efficiency best practices and promote more energy-efficient products. Kentucky is among the area of 11 states and one territory (U.S. Virgin Islands) that SEEA serves.
Clark and Delambre hosted Mills on a three-day whirlwind tour of Kentucky, which included visits to the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence; the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research; Conn Center for Renewable Energy at the University of Louisville; Berea College; Phillips Lighting; Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center; and Mountain Area Community & Economic Development (MACED). Mills also met with Chris Kimmel at the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation; Gill Holland, builder of the first LEEDS Platinum building in Kentucky and innovator behind the NuLu district of Louisville; and the hydro-power innovator, David Brown Kinloch.
He was impressed by the extent to which Kentucky has invested in high-performance schools, now numbering 120 across the state. “That’s a national leader, and it’s not on everyone’s radar,” he said.
SEEA can promote Kentucky throughout the region as a model for the development of energy-efficient schools. SEEA can also bring ideas and connections that could help Kentucky. As an example, he mentioned a study by the Electric Cooperative of South Carolina on the retrofitting of mobile homes for greater energy efficiency.
This is the kind of synergy that Delambre and Clark aim to create through their consulting work. “We come at this with the approach to facilitate dialogue, identify funding and bridge existing barriers or gaps with financing, expertise and technology,” said Delambre. “We go out nationally and internationally to find these resources and bring them back to Kentucky and introduce them to key entities and stakeholders. The idea is to develop innovative energy pilot projects that can be scalable or replicable across the state and in the larger midwest/southeast region.”
Delambre brings technical expertise to MCEE with a background in architecture along with his higher degree and certification in energy management. He oversaw the University of Cincinnati Climate Action Plan, for which he developed the university’s carbon footprint and provided strategies for carbon reduction. He also works on projects through his business, Interdependent Energies, LLC.
Clark brings extensive networking to MCEE, along with a higher degree in business administration, entrepreneurial experience and innovative program creation. He founded Sustainable Business Ventures (SBV), a nonprofit that provides training in entrepreneurship to low-income youth and difficult-to-employ individuals, including ex-offenders. SBV developed the Green Entrepreneur Program that trains youth in how to make their businesses more energy efficient and green. He worked as a lobbyist for a Fortune 500 energy company. He founded a publishing company that has published more than 20 Kentucky-related publications, including Clark’s Kentucky Almanac. He also founded the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in Lexington.
Clark and Delambre formed MCEE in 2011. They call it a flat organization without the typical business pyramid structure.
“When we go into a room, we might represent 50 different people,” said Clark, referring to their network of expertise. They inflate a project’s workforce or draw in other talent as needed.
Delambre said it’s a new business model that allows them to adapt each project specifically to client needs and cut costs while delivering high-quality solutions. Those solutions might apply to centralized (utilities) or decentralized (commercial and residential), transmission or demand side, and involve energy efficiency, wind power, solar power, hydro power, biomass and geothermal. Delambre said that MCEE has a strategic alliance with Palmetto, an international clean energy development and financial firm that funds projects globally.
Current projects with MCEE include creating a strategic plan for the rebuilding of tornado-damaged West Liberty, Ky., which they are doing in collaboration with other organizations there. As a part of that project they brought Daniel Wallach to West Liberty to discuss the green rebuilding of Greensburg, Ks., and Joplin, Mo. MCEE arranged for three days of meetings in Louisville for leaders there to consider the Living City Block, a model project developed at the Rocky Mountain Institute that is being implemented on a downtown Denver block in a high-density restaurant and residential area. The goal there is to reduce aggregate energy use 50 percent by 2013, and to reduce overall resource use 75 percent by 2016.
Clark said that when a project aggregates buildings for a district-wide sustainability upgrade, it becomes much more attractive for funding from large venture firms that tend to dismiss smaller projects. It also positions the project for better pricing through collective negotiations, and it relieves individual business or building owners from trying to figure it all out.
MCEE aims to make a difference in Kentucky. “With a common vision, we could position Kentucky to solve many of the challenges of sustainability in the 21st century,” said Delambre. “We need multidisciplinary input from all key stakeholders, including government, cities, and business.”