Should We Scrap Alt-Energy in Favor of Energy Efficiency?

Posted on Monday July 12th by Melissa Lafsky | 1,094


Resources — and time – for energy innovation are growing scarce. And while alternatives like solar and “cleaner” coal are gradually making more of a dent in our reliance on oil and coal, the need for a centralized push towards a solution is dire. So what should the policy be going forward? Should we be devoting more time, money, and energy to making current buildings more energy efficient? Or throwing all our resources towards coming up with more and better alternative sources of energy?

In Australia at least, it looks like the answer, at least in the short-term, is “the former.” A new report from the Energy Efficiency Council of Australia indicates that in the next 10 years, energy efficiency will deliver twice the results of renewable energy, a switch to nuclear power, and “clean coal” efforts combined. Treehugger reports:

“The International Energy Agency estimates that energy efficiency will deliver 65 per cent of worldwide carbon cuts in the energy sector by 2020, and 54 per cent by 2030. This means that in 2020 energy efficiency could have almost twice the impact of renewable energy, nuclear power and clean coal combined.”

Such were findings of the Energy Efficiency Council (EEC) of Australia, who late last month released report entitled Energy Efficiency: Australia’s Low Carbon Opportunity, with the subhead of Boost Profits, Cut Emissions, Create Jobs. The EEC believe that increasing the uptake of energy efficiency could save more greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 than taking every Australian car off the road.

As in many industrialized nations, energy use in Australia is highly concentrated — according to the report, “just 220 companies, mainly in manufacturing, mining, and construction, use more than 40 per cent of the energy consumed” in the country. In the U.S., the numbers are slightly more even, with industries eating up around a third of the nation’s energy, while transportation (which includes a major part of industry — the transportation of goods) accounts for 28% of our total use. The commercial sector — office buildings, malls, warehouses — comes in fourth (behind residential use) at 19%.

In other words, a concerted efficiency effort in any one of these categories could have a radical impact on the nation’s energy usage as a whole. And while money has been flowing — including from Google — into green investment in the global market, given the state of the world’s economy, we may not be able to rely on long-term funding big enough to bring wind, solar, biofuels, etc. to the level of oil/coal replacements. As such, should we shift the bulk of our efforts toward a large-scale push for efficiency?