Antinuclear

70% cut in world energy use achievable by energy efficiency

whereas new generation techniques take years to come on stream, efficiency can be improved today, with existing technologies and know-how.

Efficiency could cut world energy use over 70 per cent, – New Scientist,  26 January 2011 by Helen Knight Simple changes like installing better building insulation could cut the world’s energy demands by three-quarters, according to a new study.

Discussions about reducing greenhouse gas emissions usually concentrate on cleaner ways of generating energy: that’s because they promise that we can lower emissions without having to change our energy-hungry ways. But whereas new generation techniques take years to come on stream, efficiency can be improved today, with existing technologies and know-how.

To calculate how much energy could be saved through such improvements, Julian Allwood and colleagues at the University of Cambridge analysed the buildings, vehicles and industry around us and applied “best practice” efficiency changes to them.

Changes to homes and buildings included triple-glazing windows and installing 300-millimetre-thick cavity wall insulation, using saucepan lids when cooking on the stove top, eliminating hot-water tanks and reducing the set temperature of washing machines and dishwashers. In transportation, the weight of cars was limited to 300 kilograms.

They found that 73 per cent of global energy use could be saved by introducing such changes.

Demand side

Many people are unaware of the scale of opportunities for reducing energy demand, says Allwood. By showing how global energy demand can fall to a quarter of its current level without any decline in services, the team hope to redress the balance.

“We think it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll find a good response to the threat of global warming on the supply side alone,” Allwood says. “But if we can make a serious reduction in our demand for energy, then all the options [for changing the energy supply] look more realistic.”………

the team’s conclusions are “powerful”,   says Nick Eyre, leader of the Lower Carbon Futures group at the University of Oxford,, and the suggestion that major investment should be going into buildings, vehicles and factories instead of the energy system has major political implications. “The emphasis on the importance of ‘passive systems’ strongly implies that conventional ideas about the energy system and energy policy need to be broadened to include the way energy is used, not just the way it is supplied and converted,”

Efficiency could cut world energy use over 70 per cent – tech – 26 January 2011 – New Scientist

January 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized