Americas Energy CEO Series: Ameresco's Sakellaris optimistic about energy efficiency

Technological advances since the 1970's have been a major driver of energy efficiency growth in the US, with many operations now able to save 20%-30% of their energy use through such measures, according to George Sakellaris, president and CEO of Ameresco.

Ameresco is a publically traded independent provider of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for facilities throughout North America and the UK.

Sakellaris founded the company in 2000, coming to the US in 1965 to study engineering at the University of Maine, working afterwards for NE Electric as a start-up engineer at coal-fired power plants, he said in a recent interview with S&P Global Platts. He then did long-range planning strategy on transmission and generation.

Sakellaris said he was given an opportunity to study the economics of energy conservation, evaluating the costs to consumers of building new power generation capacity and transmission versus making better use of existing plants and power lines.

The results showed that using existing infrastructure more efficiently made more economic sense then building new power plants and associated infrastructure so they cancelled construction on some projects.

"I always wanted to prove that energy efficiency is the best supply option that we have," Sakellaris said. This is because at every facility they evaluate the company finds it can reduce energy consumption by 20% to 30%, he said.

Consumption is reduced through a combination of water reclamation, LED lighting, smart metering, intelligent microgrids, battery storage, combined heat and power or the installation of renewable energy, such as solar PV systems, according to Ameresco's most recent US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Most of the company's small-scale renewable energy plants to date consist of solar PV installations and plants constructed adjacent to landfills that use landfill gas to generate energy. Ameresco has also designed and built plants that use biogas from wastewater treatment processes, according to the filing.

Some sites can save even more, Sakellaris said, with one building in Washington that was built in 1998 being able to save 60% of its energy consumption.

"People are beginning to get it, the point is you get energy to do more work for you," he said. Light bulbs used to get 100 lumens/watt and now they get 10,000 lumens/watt and that is happening across the board as technologies improve, he added.

Most of the renewable energy assets Ameresco owns have power purchase agreements either with the customer or another offtaker. The renewable energy installations evolved from existing relationships with colleges, municipalities or military bases where the company had already done energy efficiency work and are now looking to install solar or other solutions, Sakellaris said.

Renewable natural gas

At end-2019, Ameresco owned and operated 99 small-scale renewable energy plants and solar PV installations. Of the owned plants, 23 are renewable landfill gas plants, two are wastewater biogas plants, and 74 are solar PV installations, according to the SEC filing.

The company purchases the landfill gas that otherwise would be combusted or vented, processes it, and either sells it or uses it in its energy plants. Ameresco also has plants that take biogas generated in the anaerobic digesters of wastewater treatment plants and turns it into renewable natural gas that is either used to generate energy on-site or that can be sold through the nation's natural gas pipeline grid, according to the filing.

"More and more gas companies are being asked by regulators to reduce their carbon footprint," Sakellaris said. Ameresco has three RNG plants under construction and five in planning stages, he said.

Asked about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Sakellaris said some projects could be delayed and the impact might be a shift in revenue from one quarter to another.

"We have been through crises before," he said.