|
Neal R. Verfuerth, President and CEO. Mr. Verfuerth founded Orion Energy Systems in 1996 and created many of the patented products, which form the core of Orion’s clean energy technology platform. Neal’s accomplishments as a business leader and innovator have been recognized in numerous ways. Orion has twice been awarded the Manufacturer of the Year award by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Association (2002 and 2004), received the Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air Award from the Department of Natural Resources (2004), and earned first-place honors in the annual Governor’s New Product Awards for its “compact modular” HIF technology (2006). Neal received the prestigious Ernst & Young Wisconsin “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2004, joining a list that includes Herbert Kohler (Kohler Co.) and Samuel Johnson (SC Johnson Company), and Mr. Verfuerth was featured in BusinessWeek’s SmallBiz Magazine (Spring 2005). In addition, Mr. Verfuerth and Orion has received substantial media coverage including the New York Times, Milwaukee Journal, Business Week and Corporate Report Wisconsin, PBS’s Nightly Business Report (11/21/2006), and recently Marketplace Magazine.
In 2001 the company revolutionized the industry with a High Intensity Fluorescent (HIF) technology platform called the Illuminator. This platform uses half the energy of traditional High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting systems and provides significantly more light. Verfuerth has expanded the technology capabilities and services that help advance the adoption of energy efficient technology. The company now holds 15 patents on its energy efficient systems and product enhancements.
Project Finance
Verfuerth also recognized that there isn’t always room in a capital budget for an energy efficiency project. He designed an innovative financing model to allow customers to acquire the energy savings platform without any capital expenditures. Companies are able to install the platform and pay for it with the energy they save – which helps preserves and enhance cash flow. This “shared savings” approach allow customers who are not able to acquire the technology directly with the chance to improve their light output and cut their energy costs significantly.
Measurement and Verification
Verfuerth found that customers and utilities would not believe the claims about energy savings, so he designed and patented metering technology to validate energy savings claims. Customers are able to see energy they will save after a demonstration is installed and guaranteed their savings before signing the proposal. Verfuerth drove the development of wireless web-based metering technology used after implementation of the base load technology. Customers have the ability to measure their energy utilization and manage their peak consumption using this web-based system. This metering technology allows utilities to count the removal of the energy from the grid as a new power source because it has a measurable and sustainable base and peak load impact. This comprehensive demand response system helps customers shed valuable peak loads and gain control over their energy consumption.
Direct Renewable
Verfuerth has also taken the company into a new market of direct renewables with its Light Pipe technology. There is no conversion loss, which makes it the most efficient use of the sun in to solar market. This technology eliminates peak load throughout the day and is integrated into the High Intensity Fluorescent technology platform and ambient light sensors to gain maximum energy savings. This peak load reduction helps utilities keep the level of reserve capacity constant and slows the need for new power expansion – especially peaking plants.
Mitigation of Carbon Footprint
One prominent development in the private sector is the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which has created a market-based cap and trade program to help member companies reduce their carbon footprint. With more than 200 members and monitored by the National Association of Securities Dealers, the CCX is a voluntary but legally binding marketplace for measuring compliance with reductions in greenhouse gases and trading emissions credits and offsets. In conjunction with the CCX, Orion is at the forefront of efforts to quantify, verify, certify, aggregate and ultimately magnetize the emissions offsets that result from its clean energy projects.
|
