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The (carbon free) power of energy efficiency

Energy Efficiency: Twice the Impact of Renewables, Nuclear and Clean Coal. Combined. : TreeHugger, by Warren McLaren, Bundanoon, Australia 07. 6.10 “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…….

They cite, for example, one company who has discovered they can save so much energy at one plant that it would equal to powering 100,000 homes. And that’s butt one business. The report notes that “just 220 companies, mainly in manufacturing, mining, and construction, use more than 40 per cent of the energy consumed in Australia.” As the Sydney Morning Herald points out this is “almost twice as much power as all households combined.”
Not that any of this would be news to the Rocky Mountain Institute‘s co-founder, Amory Lovins, who way back in 1989 introduced the term Negawatt, as a measure of energy efficiency, being a unit in watts of energy saved……
The Energy Efficiency Council suggest such action could begin with cutting energy use by 20% below business as usual by 2020 and introducing a National Efficiency Scheme (NES). And that’s just the first two of seven actions……..

Energy Efficiency: Twice the Impact of Renewables, Nuclear and Clean Coal. Combined. : TreeHugger

July 7, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, ENERGY | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, climate change, energy efficiency, global warming, renewable energy, renewables