City skylines have long been a symbol of innovation and prosperity. What you can’t see is that these same buildings are some of the largest energy consumers in the United States and are therefore responsible for significant amounts of the nation’s carbon pollution.
In August 2015, President Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the final Clean Power Plan, regulating carbon pollution from existing power plants for the first time. Since then, many cities have released Climate Action Plans, setting targets for carbon emissions. The success of these two initiatives are mutually dependent. EPA’s Clean Power Plan requires strong local action, and the Climate Action Plans of cities, in turn, need national policies to ensure affordable, reliable, low-carbon electricity. Georgia Tech has modeled low-cost pathways for compliance with the Clean Power Plan that accelerate the transition from coal plants to cleaner sources of energy. By also emphasizing energy efficiency, these pathways could temper the recent rapid growth of new natural gas combined cycle plants, and making the transition to a cleaner energy future more affordable.
A new analysis of the effects of such clean power pathways illustrates how commercial building owners and occupants can benefit from more efficient and more affordable air conditioning, lighting, electronics and other equipment, and from improved building shells as well as rooftop solar systems. For example, the analysis found that commercial building owners and occupants in the United States could realize annual electricity savings of $11.3 billion (6.7%) in 2030, compared to the business-as-usual case, if states were to adopt the Clean Power Plan pathway described above.
With a focus on energy efficiency, new integrated heat pump systems could replace the less efficient units that are commonly used on the rooftops of office buildings, schools, restaurants and big-box stores, tackling one of the most rapidly growing energy uses in the United States – air conditioning. Other policies include stricter building codes and strengthened equipment standards. These would produce a significant reduction in energy bills and carbon emissions.
Energy efficiency (EE) is an important tool for cost-effectively lowering emissions. California has had EE built into its building codes for decades now and, as is widely touted, California’s per… Read more »
Good comments. You effectively document the strong record of EE in California, but you also note that EE may not be fast enough to address the requirements of a rapidly evolving global… Read more »
I’m not sure how to think about your remark: I like to think about “going on a diet with EE” before “having your dessert with renewables.” But if we see… Read more »
Yes, your comments suggest that I need to clarify what I mean by going on a diet first. It’s an approach that’s particularly appropriate when sizing solar (and geothermal) systems.… Read more »
It is disheartening to see such a simplistic treatment of a complex topic from someone who is a professor of public policy. It is an attractive fallacy to think energy… Read more »
Ike: While you appear to support free markets, you are ignoring the major failure of the fossil fuel market. The fact that fossil fuels are allowed to pollute the atmosphere… Read more »
I will continue to battle oversimplification and lazy thinking, such as the trite, one-sided, and historically bankrupt claims about fossil fuels getting subsidized or getting a free ride for externalities.… Read more »
Ike: You lost me at “historically bankrupt claims about fossil fuels getting subsidized or getting a free ride for externalities.” If you don’t understand that fossil fuels are subsidized and… Read more »
If you think a primary energy source can be subsidized, then you do not understand first principles of economics, physics, or biology. Primary energy is food to civilization, and EROI… Read more »
“greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels are warming the planet and increasing the number and severity of droughts, wildfires, floods, insect infestation and also causing sea level… Read more »
Ike: We are not talking about subsidizing the concept of energy, we are talking about subsidizing companies that extract fossil fuels. The best energy sources for society are those that… Read more »
“losing the southern third of Florida and many coastal cities” “the majority of new energy generation is coming from renewables.” “coal power has negative social value.” Dan, your worldview keeps… Read more »
I fundamentally do not understand your statement “the energy intensity of the U.S. electric power sector has been increasing rather than decreasing under recent aggressive federal policy, due to state and… Read more »
Joel, Well stated. I agree with your assessment of energy intensity trends.
You seem to be thinking of the heat rate of plants rather than the economic term of energy intensity. You also seem to be thinking about only the operational phase… Read more »
Ike, You lament that “It is disheartening to see such a simplistic treatment of a complex topic from someone who is a professor of public policy.” Au contraire. My discussion essay is… Read more »
People who make their living as energy economists and consultants have long ago learned not to trust any predictions from EIA. We don’t doubt the complexity of their modeling, but… Read more »
Yes, policymakers are likely undervaluing efficiency to the extent they are considering it at all, and SIPs should place greater emphasis on EE as a result of these findings and… Read more »
My humble opinion is that energy efficiency should be a CPP building block and there is a specific reason why: http://petrolog.typepad.com/climate_change/2009/09/the-cost-of-abating-greenhouse-gases.html You will note that energy efficiency is the “low… Read more »
Matt and Bill, Thanks for noting that EPA should indeed have included EE as a building block in calculating the state carbon reduction goals of the Clean Power Plan. Fortunately, EE… Read more »
Ike: We get it. You deny that climate change is a serious risk and you like to cherry pick data from the IPCC and come up with you’re personal interpretation… Read more »
One of the exciting and promising developments we’ve seen in the Southeast is policymakers’ interest in energy efficiency to address the energy burden facing low-income residents and businesses in the… Read more »
My “Gallery of Clean Energy Inventions” profiles 16 Larger Generators, 28 Smaller Generators, 20 Advanced Self-Powered Vehicle Innovations, 26 Radioactivity Neutralization Methods, 24 Space Travel Innovations, 14 Technical Solutions to… Read more »