Next Generation Energy is managed and written entirely by Seed editors and expert guest bloggers. Read more about them I am glad that we saved the first fuel, energy efficiency, for last. Here are the central points:
- Energy efficiency is the biggest low-carbon resource by far. Of the 12 to 14 stabilization wedges of clean energy technology we need to deploy globally by 2050 to avert climate catastrophe, about two are electricity efficiency, one is recycled Energyy (cogeneration), and one is vehicle fuel efficiency (cars globally averaging 60 mpg). The International Energy Agency comes to a similar conclusion in a recent report.
- Efficiency is rhe limitless resource. It never gets exhausted because technology keeps improving and knowledge spreads to more and more people. Indeed, the few companies that have ever pursued efficiency in a truly systematic fashion, like the Louisiana division of Dow Chemical, found ever-rising savings with ever faster paybacks from efficiency and waste minimization.
- Efficiency is the only cheap power left. In the best document case, California has cut annual peak demand by 12 GW -- and total demand by about 40,000 GWh -- over the past three decades. The cost of efficiency programs has averaged 2-3¢ per kW -- which is about one fifth the cost of electricity generated from new nuclear, coal and natural gas-fired plants. And, of course, energy efficiency does not require new power lines and does not generate greenhouse gas emissions or long-lived radioactive waste.
- Efficiency can be done consistently and cost-effectively for decades with relatively simple government policies. Perhaps the most important policies are strong building standards and smarter utility regulations that decouple electric utility sales from profits.
- Efficiency has the highest documented rate of return of any federal program. As the National Academy of Sciences verified in a major report on "Energy Research at DOE: Was It Worth It?" a handful of energy technologies developed through funding by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy have returned about $30 billion on an R&D investment of about $400 million.
- Efficiency efforts have largely been neglected and/or scaled-back by Bush and Cheney. In particular, they have cut most federal programs aimed at deploying energy efficiency and gutted the industrial energy efficiency program.
- Efficiency has always been a low priority of John McCain, who seems to be angling for Cheney's third term. His energy and climate plans ignore efficiency almost entirely.
- Efficiency is a central component of Barack Obama's energy plan. He has offered what I believe is the most detailed and comprehensive set of policies to tap the first fuel ever offered by a presidential candidate.
I don't think we have any realistic chance of solving the climate problem in a practical and affordable fashion if the federal government fails to take a leading role in promoting energy efficiency. This election remains among the most consequential United States has ever had.
Comments
Another characteristically great post from Joe. I'm associated with Recycled Energy Development, a company that turns waste heat into clean power and steam, thereby cutting global warming pollution and energy costs at the same time. Studies for the EPA and DoE suggest that energy recycling (which includes cogeneration and waste heat recovery, e.g.) could slash greenhouse emissions by 20%. That's as much as if we pulled every passenger vehicle off the road. The only reason more isn't being done is that regulations favoring monopoly utilities make it hard for more efficient alternatives to emerge.
Posted by: miggs | October 2, 2008 5:27 PM
I work in the datacenter industry and I can tell you that energy efficiency is vital, yet until recently overlooked, to that industry. In general the average datacenter uses between 2.5 and 4 watts of power to provide 1 watt of power to the IT infrastructure, a terrible waste of a valuable resource. The company I work for is building a new datacenter whose PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) rating will be 1.38. When you're talking about an infrastructure that will use 40Mw that's a huge saving, both for the company and for the planet.
Posted by: Doug Alder | October 3, 2008 9:12 AM
Enough already with the politics. You're sounding like Joe Biden. At least give Cheney & Co. credit for getting the price of gas up. That drove a lot of RV's and SUV's off the road. It got me walking to work, too.
Efficiency pushes are helpful, but often they get dropped when the cost of fuel goes down. To make them permanent takes capital, which these days is in short supply. It's hard to make decent enough returns to justify efficiency projects. I don't think tax breaks or more R&D are what's needed. As with the auto industry bailout, the government is going to have to force efficiency upon the old iron by buying it for them.
40 MW for a datacenter! Wow! That's the whole output of a large hog fuel boiler. I'd heard about how big some of these storage facilities were while in Santa Clara a few years ago, but didn't think about them in terms of electrical demand.
Posted by: tom quick | October 14, 2008 3:51 PM
A week ago I sat through a series of company seminars, in which a group of energy saving projects were identified which in the aggregate would reduce our company's energy use by the equivalent of 500,000T of coal a year. These projects have 100% chance of success. All the technology involved is proven. Will we implement? No, for the reason I stated above. There is a positive return for doing the projects, but the rate of return is too low. And the aggregate capital spend for them is in the neighborhood of $500 million. We need outside assistance if these projects are ever to be executed.
This is why it saddens me watching the government squander billions of dollars on ethanol from wood, switchgrass plantations, corn ethanol subsidies and other delirious schemes. Billions of dollars spent wisely would save the burning of millions of tons of coal. Now. It's not pie in the sky.
Posted by: tom quick | October 29, 2008 4:21 PM
thanks
Posted by: chat | January 22, 2009 11:51 AM
it's nice,thanks.
Posted by: HD LCD monitor | June 24, 2009 4:26 AM