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Energy Efficiency is the 3rd Largest Resource in the US

Energy Efficiency is the 3rd Largest Resource in the US thumbnail

Have you ever described efficiency as an energy resource and gotten a quizzical look in return? We have, even though utility system planners have been using energy efficiency for decades to make sure that power for their customers is both reliable and affordable. For those of us who have been in the energy efficiency industry for years, or even decades, we sometimes take for granted that others will understand what we mean. But we must not. We must help educate a wider audience that energy savings from greater efficiency—whether we call them negawatts, an invisible energy source, virtual power plants, or something else—are a cornerstone of our nation’s energy system and critical to a clean and affordable energy future. In fact, energy efficiency is now the third largest resource in the US electric power sector, as shown in a new report we released today.

How we crunched the numbers

Last year we set out to quantify the size of the energy efficiency resource that currently exists in the electric power sector using a bottom-up approach to estimate energy savings achieved through specific policies and programs. We looked at three areas. First, through our State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, we had 10 years of state-level data on evaluated energy savings from utility-sector energy efficiency programs. Second, we used state-level energy savings estimates of appliance efficiency standards from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). And third, we used state-level energy savings estimates of building energy codes from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Energy savings produce huge benefits

The combined impacts of these three major energy efficiency efforts since 1990 amount to a remarkable accomplishment in the US electric power sector. We estimate that not only is efficiency our third largest resource, but, more importantly, it has averted the need to build the equivalent of 313 power plants since 1990. We also estimate that efficiency reduced annual carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to climate change, by 490 million tons in 2015. We can see further evidence of efficiency’s impact in the fact that electricity consumption has flattened in recent years even as the economy has grown. What’s more, energy efficiency has saved consumers $90 billion annually on electric bills. For American households, this translates to average savings of $840 per year.

Many more benefits come from investing in energy efficiency. For example, efficiency is especially important for low-income, African-American, Latino, and renting households because it lowers their energy bills over the long term and helps alleviate their disproportionate energy burden (the percentage of household income spent on utilities). Our new report also details other benefits of efficiency such as economic development, job creation, community resilience, and improved health, safety, and comfort.

Energy efficiency could become our number one resource by 2030

We can do much more through energy efficiency in the electric power sector, as ACEEE and others have recently documented. If we increase our application of the three major policies examined in this report (appliance and equipment efficiency standards, utility energy efficiency targets of 1.5% per year, and building energy codes), efficiency could become our nation’s largest electricity resource by 2030, providing one-third of total expected electricity generation needs. These additional energy savings would avoid the need for electrical capacity equivalent to 487 power plants. Combined with the gains since 1990, savings from energy efficiency could amount to the output of 800 power plants by 2030.

State-level policy action is critical to this level of achievement. ACEEE has found that energy efficiency policies can play a major role in each state’s compliance plan for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, which is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the electricity sector to limit climate change. Most states could meet at least 25% of their emissions reduction requirement through efficiency policies and the resulting investments, and many could achieve 100%.

Other sectors have huge energy efficiency potential

While this paper tells the story of the efficiency resource in the electricity sector and its emission reduction benefits, there is much more to the story of energy efficiency and climate change mitigation. According to the EPA, the transportation sector accounts for 26.5% of GHG emissions in the United States, followed by industrial (21.4%), buildings (12.4%), and agricultural (9.2%), Efficiency has an important role to play in all of these areas. For example, the transportation sector could potentially reach zero emissions by 2050, with more than half the reductions coming from energy efficiency, including both vehicle and transportation efficiency. The International Energy Agency estimates that energy efficiency will need to account for nearly half of all GHG emission reductions through 2040 to reach a scenario in which the global increase in temperature is limited to 2 degrees Celsius.

We will need major investments and critical support from government, industry, and the nonprofit community to reach these relative levels of energy savings in the US and realize all the benefits they can bring. Just as major policies and commitments in recent decades have helped energy efficiency become our third largest electricity resource today, now we need a new era of visionary policy to create opportunity for future generations.

The Energy Collective by American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)



34 Comments on "Energy Efficiency is the 3rd Largest Resource in the US"

  1. Ralph on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 11:06 am 

    The UK could save 18% of it’s energy consumption through efficiency. In the US, the figure is nearer 80%.

  2. Sissyfuss on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 11:44 am 

    Isn’t grid collapse the greatest possible source of energy efficiency? A kilowatt saved is a kilowatt earned.

  3. rockman on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 11:53 am 

    Ralph – Here’s the primary problem projecting huge gains in future efficiency: has society specifically ingnored additional KNOWN and ACCEPTABLE efficiency opportunities? IOW while SUPPOSEDLY making significant improvements why have we failed to realize those other opportunities?

    Let’s use the somewhat overused (IMHO) “low hanging fruit” theme. Are the gains seen already the result going after all opportunities or the ones that were more economic and, more importantly, more politically acceptable. I won’t waste space going over the many potential “fixes” we’ve discussed here that are never applied because they are not generally accepted despite being the logical choices.

    Thus projecting future growth in efficiency gains seems as misguided as the assumption many made that oil production from the shales would continue growing for many years as it had in the first 5 years or so. And oddly enough for the same reason: high priced oil provided incentive to chase the shales just as it and high priced NG and coal pushed innovation and erfficiency improvements. Especially true for utilities that not too lonv ago were paying 4 to 5 times as much for NG as they are now. IOW had NG prices not boomed for a few years (which not so coincidentally happened during that same time) and had been at the currernt price level for the last 15 years would they be able to offer those same SUPPOSED gains?

    If the answer is no why would one expect to see such gains in the future given the CURRENT lower costs of oil, NG and coal? Same dynamic but different question: why expect greater application of alt energy sources in the near future?

    Because that would be the smart reaction of society? History would seem to argue: no f*cking way. LOL.

  4. ghung on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 12:15 pm 

    US electricity consumption peaked (so far) in 2008-2009. It wasn’t ‘efficiency’ that curbed total use. Seems economic downturn is a pretty big resource. Per capita use has been declining somewhat for a while (efficiency gains?) even as total use increased (a Jevons+growth thing I expect). Anyway, we’re almost back to those pre-recession levels, though limits to growth may well put a damper on things,, permanently.

  5. Cloggie on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 12:38 pm 

    My professor who taught the global big energy picture claimed around 1980 that the world could do with 50% less energy, without losing status of “advanced economy”, if really everything was done to save energy. A lot has been done since, so now apparently it is 18%.

  6. rockman on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 1:55 pm 

    Since 1980 thru 2015 US energy consumption has not decreased 50% and nor p18%. According to the US govt bean counters it has increased 27%. So maybe that 18% is just that much less then someone had projected for future consumption. IOW they had projected a 45% increase (27% + 18%) but we only saw that 27% increase. IOW sometimes a posted “decrease” is actually an INCREASE.

    The good news: for from 2004 thru 2015 US energy consumption has remained relatively flat. Which shouldn’t be a big surprise given the price increases of the various fossil fuels. So back to the point Ghung brought up: improved efficiency vs demand destruction.

  7. diemos on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 3:18 pm 

    And don’t forget that when factories get off shored the energy used to make the products we consume no longer get counted against us in the official statistics.

  8. rockman on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 3:54 pm 

    d – True: probaby some of that 300% increase in US coal exports (most coming from govt leases out west) to China was used to produce products the exported to us.

  9. Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 4:30 pm 

    So by this writers logic all one needs to do is be wasteful and it will create a resource. It seems that the number one resource in America is fucking retards.

  10. ghung on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 4:42 pm 

    TruthOnlyHasTwoBrainCellsLeft said;

    “It seems that the number one resource in America is fucking retards.”

    Article brought to you by Siemens, a German company? Thought so. Is Truthee saying the Germans are too retarded to write their own propaganda?

  11. makati1 on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 5:57 pm 

    More high grade bullshit brought to you by the Imperial ‘Truth’ Department …

  12. Go Speed Racer on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 7:49 pm 

    The improvements don’t translate to savings cause the idiots in charge make the lights too bright. The new LED streetlights are ten times brighter than the old ones. And we are in an era of knowing what is light pollution. But the stupid retards in charge, get dumberer and dumberer.
    So pour a gallon of gas in the road, light it, and tell everybody you are improving fuel efficiency.

  13. Go Speed Racer on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 8:06 pm 

    This phrase ‘negawatts’ is
    uncomfortably racist.

  14. peakyeast on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 10:10 pm 

    from this viewpoint death is the ultimate energy resource.

  15. makati1 on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 10:15 pm 

    This just came up on my screen:

    Fatal error: SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

    User j5f1d5a9_peakoil already has more than ‘max_user_connections’ active connections [1203]

    An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists. in /home3/j5f1d5a9/public_html/forums/includes/db/dbal.php on line 707

  16. Cloggie on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 10:56 pm 

    I have seen these errors several times as well.

  17. Anonymous on Mon, 22nd Aug 2016 11:33 pm 

    I got it.

    1) Waste energy as much as I can…doesn’t matter what, just waste.

    2)Cut back on my waste…somewhat.

    3)Re-brand self as a ‘producer’.

    4)Collect award, prize, trophy, whatever.

  18. godq3 on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 12:36 am 

    And yet, civilization uses more and more energy each year. Efficiency is only good for civilization, if it leads to more energy consumption.

  19. Davy on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 6:13 am 

    Efficiency is too often just more technology and more technology needs more efficiency. More technology is dirty. More efficiency requires more energy to achieve more efficiency. Diminishing returns to the waste stream are more often than not more than the actual benefits to lower waste. The same is true to the production seeking more efficiency. Efficiency hits diminishing returns quickly when we look at the life cycle or the maximums. How much further are we going to increase MPG with autos? Not enough to matter with climate change or peak oil. EV’s and renewables are likewise limited in efficiency gains that matter at the price that makes a difference with life cycle.

    Scale and duration enter the equation. The hurdles ahead are too great in scale. The duration that is left too small. Efficiency is hyped too much and is part of the delusional techno solution oriented status quo. We think as a people that we can innovate our way out of this macro brick wall predicament the same way we innovated ourselves into it. Real conservation is less. We are talking less consumption and less complexity. This all requires less people too. If any of those is not checked than there is no use believing in conservation. This situation is really one of less of all things except attitude there we need more.

    I am a hyper efficient guy. I am detailed and obsessive. I am into routine and consistency of my routine to yield results. I am also incorporating relative sacrifice into my routine to achieve less consumption and complexity. This is difficult because the temptations are great to have more with less in a society based on more thinking it can do this with less. There are few who have more than they want. I personally don’t want more than I need mainly because I like achievement and to have achievement you must have challenges. To have challenges you must have wants and limits. Efficiency fits into this equation at this level but not the macro level because of limits, diminishing returns, and ecological balance.

    Where efficiency goes haywire is at the societal level in narratives of efficiency. Efficiency is the means to the end and the end is more not less. Until society is dedicated to less and embraces technology, complexity, and energy intensity with efficiency in the pursuit of less than any real efficiency talk is delusional. When society is dedicated to less it will reject both efficiency and technology. All efficiency turns out to be at this level is more of the same but at an ever great speed.

    We have added another level to Jevons paradox. This added level is the attitude of deception. We really don’t want less we want more but we tell ourselves we want more with less and somehow that is less and that is good. It feels good and it lowers guilt. In Jevons time there were not limits in the sense we have them today where our existential existence is at stake. Our limits today are life or death in relation to what and how we are living not as they had in earlier times with not enough. In earlier times not enough food or shelter was the issue. Moderns have taken the paradox to new levels. When I say modern I am saying the 1BIL who are living modern not the other 6BIL that are a product of this falacy. The usage paradox now includes delusional thinking at the very heart of our drive as a civilization. It goes to the very fallacy of our most basic meaning and what we consider truth to be. Today modern life is completely coopted by consumption through technology and markets. All religions are part of this and all “sims” are subservient to this drive. Our survival has become based upon consumption now not limited by not enough.

    If we are lying to ourselves at this level than there is no hope. I suggest honesty. Let’s be dignified in our death process. Let’s go ahead and just pursue more and not lie to ourselves that there is a problem with that. We would be better off because then we could eliminate the guilt and the doubt. Let’s all die at least with the dignity of being honest and true. We can also say the other 6BIL don’t matter because they don’t if you really want more.

    Efficiency is a joke at the level of ecological morality. Climate change is a hoax at the level of being able to do anything about it. We are a hoax as a civilization. Never has a civilization been as delusional and superstitious as ours. Yes, superstitious because we have used science and logic to tell us technology and efficiency are the answer when they are the problem. Our superstition is believing in technology and efficiency as the basis of life when nature is. Technology and efficiency is anathema to nature so we are believing and existing for the supernatural that is technology and efficiency. Nature abhors a vacuum. We create a vacuum by destroying harmony and balance though technology and efficiency.

    We paint these pictures of primitives as being superstitious and we moderns are based in logic and science. I find that a joke and when our entire existence is based on a joke. Jokes at this level of existence are absurd. So talk about technology and efficiency but be honest about it. It is evil and will kill us. A large brain ape wants to harness his environment to achieve more and eventually kill himself as any other species when out of balance and harmony with Nature. We are doing it quicker. We are doing it in deception. We are turning an epoch and creating an extinction event. We are doing this for our god of technology and efficiency.

  20. pinkdotR on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 7:35 am 

    @Anonymous – That: “I got it.

    1) Waste energy as much as I can…doesn’t matter what, just waste.

    2)Cut back on my waste…somewhat.

    3)Re-brand self as a ‘producer’.

    4)Collect award, prize, trophy, whatever.”

    is not as stupid as it looks. Waste (unnecessary consumption in other words) is the biggest resource of any kind of energy. It is 100% renewable and it is free. Everybody can become a ‘producer’ and get a reward at his/her next electricity bill. I can list thousands of ways you can do it. Just one example here: stop boiling full kettle of water when you only want to drink one cup of tea.

  21. Boat on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 8:57 am 

    Davy on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 6:13 am

    How do you get your water. Non tech? Name a few things you use that haven’t been improved by tech. What tech has not improved by efficiency.

  22. energyskeptic on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 11:45 am 

    Electricity is a red herring.

    Only oil matters since without maintenance and construction trucks, and trucks to deliver thousands of grid components from factories all over the world, the grid won’t stay up.

    Yet little is done to save oil consumption.

    Speed limits should be 55 mph or less (especially for trucks which use huge amounts of fuel due to aerodynamic losses. I can’t remember their ideal max speed, perhaps 40 to 45 mph). In a 2009 senate hearing, former president Carter said that the reason he had such a hard time passing CAFE standards was because car makers make more money selling large cars, and oil companies make more money when large cars consume more oil, and implied that this was why Republicans prevented new CAFE standards for over 30 years until Obama was finally able to reinstate them again.

    But if greed can successfully bring down civilization ASAP before humans kill most of the other plants and animals that don’t serve human needs, and stops us from crossing the nine boundaries that would drive much of life on this planet extinct, long live greed!

    John Rockstrom et al. 2009. Planetary Boundaries: Exploring Safe Operating Space for Humanity Ecology and Society, Vol. 14, No. 2, Article 32

  23. Anonymous on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 12:13 pm 

    Pink, I am a very efficient ‘producer’ of electrical energy. I have a glass jar, which holds just enough water to make me my one, large cup of tea. I never use more than that.

    I am also an efficient toaster producer. I only eat 1 slice, But the toaster stubbornly heats up on both sides regardless of how many slices I actually put in. The toaster however, is a product of evil, corporate infinite consumption types-not my dept.

  24. onlooker on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 12:15 pm 

    Yes Energy this is in line with Olduvai theory which measures the viability of Industrial Civilization along a per capita energy production unit timeline and foresees rapid dissolution of Industrial Civilization once per capita energy production begins to fall markedly. This decline will be punctuated by intermittent blackouts and then total failure of electric grids. So another reminder of how crucial fossil fuels are

  25. ghung on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 1:01 pm 

    “…..foresees rapid dissolution of Industrial Civilization once per capita energy production begins to fall markedly.”

    Per capita energy use is already dropping in the west, especially in the US:

    2000 – 350 million BTU per
    2011 – 313 million BTU per

    Of course, 2011 was still a “recovery” year, but that could be a chicken/egg argument, eh?

    http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=44&pid=45&aid=2&cid=regions&syid=2000&eyid=2011&unit=MBTUPP

  26. MikeX11.2 on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 1:32 pm 

    For example.
    I just cut the baseboard footage in one room in my house from 42 foot to 21 foot, the footage needed to actually heat the room at the right temperature.

    That room was 80 degrees in January when the rest of the house was 68. That was wasted heat for 50 years, because no previous owner fixed it.

    Also, hybrids, the fuel savings PAY for the CAR after 200,000 to 300,000 miles. That’s simple 5th grade math.

    Yes, we waste a lot of energy in America.
    The Chevy Volt, may seem like it’s got a high price, yet, again, drive it and it will pay for itself. No non-hybrid tech can make that claim, typically when you buy a car your going to pay at least 100% Extra in fuel cost to Exxon.

    There is a Crisis in Math Education in America.

  27. MikeX11.2 on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 1:34 pm 

    The mistake Wall Street made was $4 a gallon gas and Home Heating Oil.

    NEVER FORGET.
    They will attempt to Bankrupt You.

  28. Anonymous on Tue, 23rd Aug 2016 5:12 pm 

    So, to pay for itself, you would need to drive a so-called ‘hybrid’ the ~ of 8-12 times around the Earth@the equator.

    Circumference of the Earth ~ 25k Miles(for all backward yankees out there, 40k km for the rest of us).

    Maybe instead of bemoaning the crisis of basic math amoung the cattle-serfs of the amerikan empire(which is true enough), you might ask why car-ownership is practically mandated by law(and everything else), instead? You could, in theory, I suppose, make that hybrid ‘pay for itself after driving around the earth at the equator 12 times, but who pays for the damage the production, use and disposal of that 1 ton+ grocery fetcher will do while covering all those miles\km? Or the roads it needs, or the people they will kill and maim(needlessly), or the water and ground pollution it will cause, etc?

    The notion you can ‘save the planet’, or to put it more honestly, infinite growth capitalism, by cosmetically less wasteful, is a very amerikan attitude it seems…

  29. Boat on Wed, 24th Aug 2016 12:56 am 

    ghung

    “…..foresees rapid dissolution of Industrial Civilization once per capita energy production begins to fall markedly.”
    Per capita energy use is already dropping in the west, especially in the US:”

    From 1970 to 2014 the amount of btu’s per sq ft to heat and cool American homes has dropped 30 plus percent. So gdp drops because waste has been squeezed out. There have been massive gains in energy intensity for decades. So tell me again how this brings on a lower standard of living by eliminating wasted use of btu’s by means of efficiency and tech.

  30. rockman on Wed, 24th Aug 2016 9:27 pm 

    “From 1970 to 2014 the amount of btu’s per sq ft to heat and cool American homes has dropped 30 plus percent.” And since 1975 the average sq. ft. of US homes has increased 100%. As Pogo said long ago: we have met the enemy…and he is us. LOL.

    https://www.aei.org/publication/todays-new-homes-are-1000-square-feet-larger-than-in-1973-and-the-living-space-per-person-has-doubled-over-last-40-years/

  31. Boat on Thu, 25th Aug 2016 8:28 am 

    rock,

    Since 1970 the use of electricity per capita has dropped in spite of the size of homes and the modern world of electronic gadgets. The problem is the addition of 120 million since then.

  32. GregT on Thu, 25th Aug 2016 10:00 am 

    As per usual Boat, you are full of shit.

    http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC?end=2013&start=1972

  33. GregT on Thu, 25th Aug 2016 10:18 am 

    Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) USA only.

    1970: 7,240 kWh per year

    2013: 13,000 kWh per year

    http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC?end=2013&locations=US&start=1960&view=chart

  34. Boat on Thu, 25th Aug 2016 12:09 pm 

    greggiet,

    Let me rephrase. The cost to heat per sq ft of space has declined by 30 percent. Even with the growth the growth of homes the net cost has gone down. Unless you like living in a small box this is major improvement in the standard of living.

    http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/09/as-american-homes-get-bigger-energy-efficiency-gains-are-wiped-out/

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