Summary: Today’s guest is Lucas Dixon, project manager with Plug Smart in Columbus, Ohio. He helps schools and other organizations improve their energy efficiency and use the savings to fund even bigger energy efficiency projects.<br> …it allows schools to borrow money without passing a levy, a tax levy, to do these types of projects so they can do all the projects up front and the energy services company, when we’re doing a project that’s Plug Smart, has to guarantee those savings. So therefore the school’s not liable for that risk. The energy services company is. So they can do the entire project. If they don’t save what we tell them they can save, that’s on us. Lucas Dixon<br> A lot of the projects that Lucas manages involve replacing old incandescent or fluorescent lighting with LEDs. During the interview I made a joke about Thomas Edison being upset over the imminent demise of his incandescent light bulb. Actually he would probably be excited about LEDs if he were around to see them. As I was putting the show together I realized I didn’t know who invented the LED. So I decided to do a little digging. This episode includes a story about Nick Holonyak, Jr., inventor of the LED. It’s available in a separate post entitled <a href="https://www.cleanpowerplanet.com/renewable-energy-stories/who-invented-the-led/">Who invented the LED?</a><br> Lucas Dixon, Chief of Strategy, Plug Smart<br> Lucas Dixon is just starting his career but he’s already got a pretty impressive resume. He is Chief of Strategy and a project manager at <a href="http://www.plugsmart.com/" target="_blank">Plug Smart</a> an innovative energy efficiency company. He’s been a board member of Green Energy Ohio and Chair of the Sustainable Transportation Division of ASES. He was co-founder of the 2009 Ohio State University Solar Decathlon Team and an advisor for the 2011 team. He also advises the OSU chapter of the American Solar Energy Society and helps them get ready to go build solar projects in Haiti.<br> DB: Where are you from Lucas?<br> LD: Columbus, Ohio.<br> DB: Did you go to “The Ohio State” by any chance?<br> LD: I certainly did go to The Ohio State University.<br> DB: Okay, what does PlugSmart do?<br> LD: Plug Smart is an energy efficiency company based in Ohio, focused pretty much in the Ohio region. We save energy for customers all across the spectrum, from K-12, Higher Ed, Industrial and Commercial buildings.<br> DB: Okay, Tell us a little bit, go into a little detail about some of the projects that you would do or maybe your favorite project.<br> LD: Sure, so we have done all sorts of projects but the most common trend in projects is using energy efficiency and the savings they generate to fund other capital improvement projects. So, we do a lot of work for K-12 schools in Ohio, and for example we will do LED replacements going from either T12 or T8 32 watt fluorescents to a LED replacement that generates really good energy savings and then you use that energy savings to buy down the cost of maybe a new rooftop units which are more expensive or have a longer payback to get a project that meets the school’s payback requirements.<br> DB: So would the school…? Like let’s say you put in LED lights and does the school have to wait a certain amount of time to see what the energy savings is going to be before they commit money from their budget to the next step?<br> LD: Well actually in the state of Ohio there’s a program called House Bill 264 and it allows schools to borrow money without passing a levy, a tax levy, to do these types of projects so they can do all the projects up front and the energy services company, when we’re doing a project that’s PlugSmart, has to guarantee those savings. So therefore the school’s not liable for that risk. The energy services company is. So they can do the entire project. If they don’t save what we tell them they can save, that’s on us.<br> DB: So you obviously try to be pretty accurate an...
