[Graeme]

A thousand cities back 2030 energy efficiency target

An alliance representing more than a thousand European cities wrote to Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, yesterday (17 February) calling for binding 2030 targets of 40% for energy efficiency, and 30% for renewable energy, in line with a European Parliament proposal.
The European Commission has adopted a milder climate package, setting the scene for a potential clash of EU pillars.

The president of the Energy Cities group, which authored the written protest, said that making efficiency a “key priority” could create jobs, send a signal to investors and more.

“I personally sense a great deal of disillusionment among my citizens towards European politics,” Eckart Würzner, who is also the Mayor of Heidelberg told EurActiv. “An ambitious EU climate and energy policy that tackled economic growth, fuel poverty and quality of life issues would ultimately contribute to restoring trust in European institutions.”

The Energy Cities letter, which EurActiv has seen, backs the Commission’s proposed 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions but chides the overall package for only suggesting a non-binding 27% target for renewables, and offering no energy savings measures at all.

This “lacks the necessary ambition to meet Europe’s climate and energy commitments for 2050 [and] fails to seize the opportunity to shift to a new energy paradigm based on dentralised low-carbon production and lower energy use,” the letter says.

New figures from Eurostat released yesterday say that energy consumption in the EU fell by 8% between 2006 and 2012, but the continent remains dependent on fossil fuel imports for 53% of its energy needs, and is off-course to meet its energy saving goals for 2020. In this context, consultation around the 2030 targets is seen as crucial.

The Commission’s proposed new energy framework “omits to fully embark local stakeholders that are committed, under the direction of their political leaders, to the Covenant of Mayors,” the letter to Van Rompuy says.

Energy Cities bills itself as ‘the European association of local authorities in energy transition’ while the Covenant of Mayors unites 5,499 city chiefs from London and Paris to small villages who all believe that “the fight against climate change will be won or lost in urban areas.”

euractiv

[Graeme]

Energy Efficiency Progress by America's Utilities: An Update

Some people are surprised to learn that our electric and natural gas utilities spend billions of dollars a year to help customers need and use less energy. But helping people get more work out of less electricity and natural gas has long been a winning strategy for many of America’s hometown utilities – and a report released this week shows that their energy efficiency budgets reached an all-time high of $7 billion last year.

In fact, these programs ranging from weatherization to high-efficiency appliance rebates saved a whopping 126 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2012, enough to power more than 12.2 million U.S. homes for one year, and avoided the generation of 89 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s why the latest annual review by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) on the "State of the Efficiency Program Industry" is a welcome reminder of progress already made and benefits still to come.

The headline for the March 2014 edition is the continuation of a five-year trend in steadily increasing expenditures by U.S. electric and natural gas utilities on all aspects of “demand-side management,” which involve low-cost ways to reduce customers’ energy needs and avoid the need tap more costly resources. These programs range from equipment and building upgrades to measures that shift energy consumption away from peak periods when distribution systems are under maximum stress.

80 percent increase in program investment

The investment increase in energy efficiency programs from 2008–2012 was a robust 80 percent (from $4 billion to $7.2 billion). Electric utilities dominated that total, recording $6.1 billion in 2012, but rates of growth were similar for both electric and natural gas utilities, and the sustained increases over the past five years are a welcome change from an earlier roller-coaster pattern, which had frustrated creation of a durable energy efficiency infrastructure by creating corrosive uncertainty about whether and where funding would be available.

The very existence of the Consortium for Energy Efficiency demonstratesthe importance of that infrastructure; the group representing energy efficiency program administrators in the United States and Canada serves as an invaluable “best practices” advisor and assistant to literally hundreds of utilities across North America, making sure that all learn quickly from both successes and failures everywhere on the continent.

Preliminary data for 2013 suggest that utilities’ efficiency programs will continue to grow, although at a more modest pace. Canada shows similar trends, and the healthy annual climate dividend from U.S. and Canadian utility efforts combined is the equivalent of more than 20 million tons a year (the emissions from at least 4 million cars).

theenergycollective

[Pops]

As long as the target is past my term I'll sign anything.

[ROCKMAN]

I'm with you Pops. Representing Baytown, Texas, I authorize our inclusion on the list. That will probably put us over the top and get the ball rolling. Always happy to help out my EU cousins.

[sparky]

.
I guess none of those cities have volunteered to cut their budget

[ROCKMAN]

Now cut it out Sparky. It's words that really count...not actions. You really have a dark soul, bro. OK Graeme...calm down. Yes: strong public support can get the politicians moving in a certain direction. And sometimes it doesn't make damn bit of difference. But, despite teasing them, it didn't hurt to make the effort. Nor, apparently, did it cost anything either.

[Subjectivist]

Count Toledo in, they will promise anything for votes especially if they don't have to live up to it themselves.

[Graeme]

Largest Source Of Energy Not Coal, Not Oil, Not Renewables, Not Natural Gas, Not Nuclear…

If we all put in a bit of effort, the largest source of energy could well be energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency contributed 63 exajoules (EJ) of avoided energy use in 2010 - that’s larger than the supply of oil (43 EJ), electricity or natural gas (22 EJ each), said a first- ever “Energy Efficiency Market report.” This was not an overnight achievement, but the benefit of investments made by 11 countries in consciously being more energy efficient since 1973.

So, solving the world problems of depleting energy sources and more environmentally hazardous way of extracting oil seems quite simple today: energy saved is like energy produced.

Energy efficiency has been called a “hidden fuel, yet it is hiding in plain sight,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven said, as she presented at the World Energy Congress in Korea.

Interestingly, in 2012 the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked the UK first among the world’s 12 largest economies for reducing pollution in industry, transport and buildings. The study calculated each country’s efforts to reduce energy use in these areas which combined make for the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in developed economies, as well as overall policies.

cleantechnica