Since Doug Miles moved his Seacoast Volkswagen dealership from Portsmouth to a new building and location seven years ago, finding the best way to deal with high energy costs has been a priority.
"It's always a sound business decision," Miles said about the investments he has made over the years. He has installed passive solar units, three small, computer-controlled natural gas boilers and a 35-foot wind turbine. More recently, the dealership added an 80-panel photovoltaic array to produce electricity and is changing to energy-efficient LED light bulbs in all of the property's parking lot light fixtures.
"We've had so many different projects, and we're just fortunate to be in the position to pursue them," Miles said of the various state and federal grants and tax incentives he has utilized to add one piece of the energy efficiency puzzle after another.
Though energy prices are down from a year to two years ago, commercial electricity and energy costs have been a consistent top concern for business owners in the region, along with skyrocketing health care costs, taxes and regulation.
Michael Licata, an energy policy expert with the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association, said energy costs overall in New England have been higher for more than two decades, in part because the regional power grid has been more reliant on natural gas for electricity generation than most any other part of the country.
"Right now natural gas is really cheap and there are a lot of reasons. It's simple supply and demand. The economy is really bad and people aren't using as much," Licata said.
While natural gas prices have been volatile, deregulation has given large-scale energy users the opportunity to find favorable electricity contracts. "Businesses need to be on the cutting edge to remain competitive in a global marketplace. They have been able to find pretty favorable contracts on the open market," he said.
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