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The Dell of green-tech alternatives?

Standard Renewable Energy CEO John Berger is on a mission to make residential green-tech retrofits as simple as buying a custom computer from Dell.Essentially, the Galveston, Texas, company is a systems integrator for alternative energy.
Written by Heather Clancy, Contributor

Standard Renewable Energy CEO John Berger is on a mission to make residential green-tech retrofits as simple as buying a custom computer from Dell.

Essentially, the Galveston, Texas, company is a systems integrator for alternative energy. Its mantra is Review, Reduce and Renew, and its team provides audits of your home, offering ways your household could reduce consumption and invest in alternative energy sources (or at the very least, put in more efficient appliances and lighting).

“From our standpoint, we’re Dell,” Berger joked when we spoke this week. “We put it all together into a solution.”

As soon as Berger said this I could tell he wanted to take his words back, but actually it’s a pretty fitting analogy. Just as Dell does for a PC or server, Standard Renewable choose the components of its energy solutions with availability and cost in mind. What’s good for you, might not be good for me or even my neighbor.

Berger says Standard Renewable doesn’t have a bias toward any one energy option or set of recommendations. Rather, it makes assessments that are right for an individual household. Here are some of the things it knows most about (plucked from its Web site):

  • Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems
  • Residential-scale wind turbines
  • Spray-foam insulation installation
  • High-efficiency heating and cooling (HVAC) systems
  • HVAC optimization solutions
  • The company also has a relationship with TruLite, a Houston company that is doing research and development in portable fuel cells.

    You may know what your monthly energy bill is, for example, but you may not be aware that your aged freezer is eating up more than one-third. “You know your bill, but do you where the consumption is coming from,” Berger asks.

    So part of Standard Renewable’s recommendations might be for you to invest in some new appliance. The bottom line is that it is concerned with keeping costs down for the buyer, not the energy company, according to Berger. “We don’t have a vested interest in what the utility gets paid,” he said.

    A base audit costs about $100, but you can recoup that if you choose to adopt Standard Renewable’s recommendations.

    Standard Renewable puts some serious weight into its training efforts, and Berger said many of the technicians it uses have backgrounds in the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (the HVAC crowd). In Texas, they work with New Point Energy Solutions. In Colorado, Standard Renewable partners with Sunflower Solar.

    Berger’s ultimate ambitions are nationwide.

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