America’s most comprehensive study of energy efficiency costs has found programs paid for by utility customers cost just two cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of power saved.
The new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), “The Program Administrator Cost of Saved Energy for Utility Customer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs,” puts a price tag on the cost of saving energy through various types of efficiency programs from 2009-2011.
Until now the program administrator cost of saving energy (CSE) has not been comprehensively studied at a state or national level, let alone the impact of stimulus funding, but this report could be the first step in better understanding the value of energy efficiency programs.
Energy Efficiency’s $0.021 Cost of Saved Energy
LBNL’s report represents the most comprehensive look yet at the cost of U.S. utility-run energy efficiency programs. Analysts sought out data from all 45 states currently running utility customer-funded energy efficiency programs, and were able to secure information from over 1,700 individual electric and natural gas efficiency programs in 31 states primarily from 2009 through 2011.
Their findings reveal an incredible return on investment for energy efficiency spending. A total of $5.3 billion dollars was spend on efficiency programs and returned a first-year total of 32,749 gigawatt-hours (GWh) gross savings, with 353,595 GWh projected lifetime gross savings.
Based on these totals, LBNL reports the average levelized CSE of energy efficiency programs is just $0.021/kWh, with a first year CSE of $0.16/kWh. Residential efficiency programs spent $1.5 billion and had the lowest CSE at a national level, with $0.018/kWh, and efficient lighting rebate programs represented at least 44% of total 109,929GWh gross lifetime savings.
cleantechnica
