The Cost of Doing Nothing

In the past few years there had been great momentum building in the renewable energy space. According to studies, solar generation capacity will raise to 4.8 gigawatts of power by 2026, which is a 60% increase from 2020 levels.

At Faith Technologies, many of our customers are inquiring about solar and renewable energy technology and have questions about what they mean for their facilities and company overall. In these discussions, we also talk about battery storage for resilience of their electrical systems in the event of utility loss, oftentimes involving our sister division, EnTech Solutions, to discuss microgrid options that may include multiple energy sources. Most of this exploration comes down to the cost of systems and installation, the tax incentives and the return on investment. At that point the decision is made to move forward, walk away from the project or put it on hold until funding is available.

What we don’t always talk about is this: what is the cost of doing nothing? When people think about the critical parts of their business, what is the cost of downtime worth? It will be different for everyone depending on the type of business or industry, but what is common is that there is always a cost to downtime. This cost is not always easy to capture. When businesses experience a power emergency, time is spent to keep employees safe and keep the business running as much as possible, and rarely is time spent capturing data on what is being experienced.

In additional to energy resilience, there are other aspects of renewable energy that can cause loss or gain of revenue. More and more companies are starting to require their suppliers to measure metrics around environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, or whether an organization is a good steward of its resources. What would happen if your business lost a large client due to inaction on renewable energy? On the flip side, what could your business gain if you were able to obtain a large client due to your ESG initiatives?

Today’s workforce is also paying attention to the environmental actions taken by the organizations they work for and potential future employers. How would your business be affected by the loss of employees due to inaction? Instead, what if your business were the employer of choice due to renewable energy and battery storage systems? What if your business were a destination employer in your city or state? What would it mean to have the best talent searching out ways to become part of your organization?

It’s time to start thinking about renewable energy and battery storage systems differently than we have in the past. Unless you’re looking past the easily definable dollar amount associated with an energy project,  you may be making a decision based on only half of the information. While capturing the other half of the data is not always easy, its paramount to understand when making decisions around renewable energy.

When you’re considering renewable energy options for your business, my question remains: what is the true cost of doing nothing?