Energy Efficiency is simply using less energy to produce the same level of energy service. It is applied to any situation where energy is used. For example oiling a bicycle wheel makes it more energy efficient because it lubricates the ball bearings and cuts down the friction.
When applied to heating or lighting in the home, there are many ways to increase the efficiency of the energy we use and hence cut down on costs. This also has the added benefit of helping the environment cope with the massive carbon footprints and greenhouse gases for which many of us are responsible.
New technologies are increasing energy efficiency in our homes and businesses. According the International Energy Agency, energy efficiency alone will be responsible for reducing the world’s energy needs by a third by 2050. Improvements in building design, effective insulation, new lighting technologies and better use of daylight are all examples of energy efficiency at work.
Combined with sources of renewable energy, energy efficiency will certainly help cut the planetary pollution presently in play, but there are other interests at work here. Our economy for example has relied on increasing consumption of goods and services to increase the flow of money. The idea of meeting our energy needs by increasing energy efficiency runs somewhat counter to this, one of the reasons why we have been quite slow on the uptake.
One example is our use of the car – a hideous example of energy efficiency. There have vested interests at work that want us to consume as much petroleum as possible because it creates maximum profit. Hence our cars are generally about 20% energy efficient in their use of fuel. Estimates from a ‘sustainable’ base, including the real costs of the earth in generating crude oil and dealing with the polluting after-effects of petrol tell us that one barrel of petroleum is worth in the region of a million dollars. It is a resource we have simply squandered through ignorance. Estimates show that up to 75% of energy used in the United Stated could be saved with relatively simple efficiency measures.
California started energy efficiency measures in the 1970’s and their use of electricity per person has remained reasonably stable since then whereas in the rest of America the consumption has doubled. Climate change talks in Vienna in 2007 concluded that real reductions in harmful emissions could be made cheaply through increasing energy efficiency.
More and more people are becoming ‘energy aware’, a state of mind that avoids waste of resources. ‘Doing more with less’ is an attitude at the heart of the new green frugalisms. There is a certain elegance, even beauty, in voluntary simplicity and an attitude that increases awareness to avoid waste.
However, the universe is made of energy. In 40 minutes, enough energy from the sun reaches our planet to service human needs for a whole year. With such riches available in the form of renewables, is the main issue ‘energy efficiency’ or our ability to harvest and store this abundance?
