The company is not your typical manufacturer. Specializing in heat-activated absorption technology, Energy Concepts has been around for over 20 years, primarily doing research and development work for the government and some for private industry. President Don Erickson says that when a development is successful, the company will carry it through the field demonstration stage. “We don’t envision ourselves as major manufacturers,” says Erickson. “We are kind of the manufacturer of last resort – we’re basically R&D people.”
Erickson says the company’s main interest in improving industrial refrigeration systems is to reduce global energy consumption and global emissions. “We’d like to be good stewards of the planet. We’re interested in this type of technology, because [refrigeration] doesn’t get the development attention it deserves.”