[This series is based in part on the Salon article, "Why we never need to build another polluting power plant."]
Energy efficiency is by far the biggest low-carbon resource available (see Part 1) — and it is as limitless as wind, PV, and solar baseload (see Part 2). It is also the cheapest power you can buy, by far.
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.
“Power plants costs have doubled since 2000” and electricity from new nuclear plants, in particular, has become absurdly expensive — 15¢ a kilowatt hour. Even wind power, now the cheapest of all new generation, has seen its price creep up in recent years — although that is expected to reverse over the next few years.
But year after year, efficiency stays absurdly cheap — indeed, it has even gotten cheaper as utilities have gotten smarter, as is clear from analysis by the California Energy Commission:
One of the ways to gauge how seriously Congress is talking about environmental issues is by watching how many industry front-groups pop up like weeds to try to choke off efforts to clean up the world around us. The weeds grow in various sizes and shapes, but they tend to share a common root system: funding from industry backers who would rather keep underground, away from the light of public discourse.
