Massive inefficiencies across the US’s energy network can be eliminated relatively easily, cutting about a third off the nation’s energy use, according to a major new analysis of power consumption.
The study from environmental think tank the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), entitled Assessing the Electric Productivity Gap and the US Efficiency Opportunity, argues that wholescale efficiency improvements could be in place by 2020, slashing US greenhouse gas emissions in the process. At present the electric power industry is responsible for emitting about one third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
The report recommends that the 40 worst-performing states in terms of energy efficiency learn from energy productivity measures implemented by the other 10 states, which RMI deemed most productive with their electricity.
If the rest of the country achieved the electric productivity already attained by the top-performing states, the country would save a total of 1.2m gigawatt-hours annually – equivalent to 30 per cent of the nation’s annual electricity use or 62 per cent of US coal-fired electrical power.
“In 2020, if the US can, on average, achieve the electric productivity of the top-performing states today, we can anticipate a 34 per cent reduction in projected electricity demand,” Mathias Bell, one of the authors of the report, said.
– from businessgreen. 12 Feb 2009
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