1. Context

Need we remind you? Energy is vital. It drives all activity, and without it, everything grinds to a halt. However, the events of the last few decades remind us that resources are not inexhaustible, and that the options taken at one time to exploit mainly fossil resources have their limits, even if regular announcements of new deposits or potential discoveries are pushing these back. Similarly, the apocryphal quote attributed to chemist Antoine Lavoisier, "Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme", would give us every hope of never running out of energy. Let's face it: energy is lost and wasted in significant proportions in the various energy uses a company puts into production. It is also lost in the means by which energy is produced and distributed to the end user. At every level of the energy chain, losses can be significant, and actions to reduce them and recover their energy...