by KC Golden, via the GRIP Blog
Something must be done about the abysmal marketing of energy efficiency. Never has such a big energy story received so little love.
In the pie-throwing contest that passes for energy dialogue in our political culture, Solyndra gets the ink, while the biggest story by far goes unreported. Keystone dominates the headlines, while new fuel economy standards languish in obscurity — even though they’ll save far more oil than Keystone will deliver and create more jobs, at a fraction of the cost. Clean energy naysayers offer a rhetorical choice between a “Keystone economy vs. a Solyndra economy,” when the actual economy is running more and more on the energy we save through better codes, standards, and efficiency programs.
Here in the Northwest, for example, we have saved over 4600 average megawatts of electricity since 1980. That’s more than enough to continuously power 4 cities the size of Seattle – and the Northwest only has one city the size of Seattle! If we let the east side of the region have all the good stuff, these energy savings could power the entire states of Idaho and Montana. But we would never do that, of course, because that would make Seattle and Portland dramatically poorer; that conserved energy, harvested from the whole region, is a gold mine, saving consumers about $2.5 billion-with-a-b annually on our power bills.
This is by far the biggest energy story in the Northwest over the last 30 years. The saved energy has met more than half of the growth in demand, at a fraction of the cost of the power we would have otherwise bought. It has extended the value of our regional hydropower system, squeezing more work – more cold beer, more hot showers, more data crunching – out of every drop of water in the system.
But there’s plenty more squeezing to do. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Sixth Plan lays out a cost effective strategy for meeting the vast majority of new energy needs with efficiency over the next 20 years. Oregon’s new draft 10 year energy strategy aims to go all the way – meeting all load growth by wasting less of the energy we’ve got.
And even that’s not the limit. We’ve got coal plants to replace too, and huge power plants of wasted energy – squandered Grand Coulees, Dalles that dribble away – in our existing building stock. Thousands of megawatts of available, cheap energy savings. Thousands of jobs for the people who harvest them…. A robust, irresistible, smoking hot energy future, powered by renewables and juiced by efficiency.
KC Golden writes for Grip on Climate. This piece was originally published at the GRIP blog and was reprinted with permission.
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…we have saved over 4600 average megawatts of electricity since 1980…
Great article but clarification of that remark would make it even better. As well, likening it to some electricity generation source would be good. Sounds like 4 reasonably sized nuke plants didn’t need to be built but it’s not quite possible to tell from the way the number is presented.
If there is to be a “War of Choice” let it be the “We All Win War” to stop profits from the pollution of the COMMONS. The truly existential threat to humanity and the root cause of terrorism, in that a population left without justice to address exploitation will spawn terrorists. It is a given, proven throughout history.
I love the NW and do my share. Exported solar PV in the summer and total base load for my home of 1300 ft^2, <200 kWh/month. Winter heat an additional $60. I do not feel deprived.
What the heck does this have to do with sex???
Tight sweaters?
Anyway, I read it all the way to the end, hopeful to the last. :-)
I think it was a suggestion that we need to drastically improve the way energy efficiency is marketed.
And because sex works for selling every other product known to mankind, why not energy efficiency?
So, some suggestions?
“Energy efficient home owners keep their cool while enjoying sizzling sex AND low electric bills.”
So, did I miss out on a career on Madison Ave?
the use of sex in the title of the post was refering to the idea that “sex sells”. On of the results of energy efficiency is that it usually lowers heat output, as inefficiency is usually friction, which causes heat. Also, the increased warming from the pollution makes it hotter outside as well as inside. Many men prefer the cooler temperatures, as a famous song describes,
“According to the Kinsey Report
Ev’ry average man you know
Much prefers to play his favorite sport
When the temperature is low,
But when the thermometer goes ‘way up
And the weather is sizzling hot,
Mister Adam
For his madam.
Is not
‘Cause it’s too, too
Too darn hot”
(kiss me kate, broadway play)
You missed the best part, energy efficiency is like a threesome because 58% of all energy produced is wasted, every MWh not consumed is 2.2Mwh of primary energy that doesn’t need to be produced.