The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
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This report quantifies the combined financial impacts of EE and distributed PV on utilities and ratepayers, by building upon prior Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) studiesii in four distinct ways. First, prior LBNL research has looked at the impact of EE and PV in isolation. This is the first effort to jointly assess the impacts of EE and PV. Second, the EE savings and PV penetration levels assumed in the study, though grounded in existing policies and forecasted PV adoption, are an upper-bound of sales and peak demand reductions representing an aggressive implementation and deployment scenario.iii Third, the study models …
View Full ResourceThe U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is the principal government agency responsible for renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency efforts. EERE works with industry, academia, national laboratories, and others to conduct research and development (R&D) and to issue grants to state governments. EERE oversees nearly a dozen technologies and programs—from vehicle technologies to solar energy to advanced manufacturing to weatherization and intergovernmental programs—each with its own respective mission and program goals.
EERE receives funding from the annual energy and water development (E&W) appropriations bill. At issue for the 115th Congress is not …
View Full ResourceDecreasing energy consumption by making buildings more energy efficient can avoid the construction of new power plants, reduce grid infrastructure costs, and lower carbon emissions—in addition to saving customers money on their energy bills. Most leading states offer energy efficiency (EE) programs that encourage lower energy usage to achieve these significant public benefits. Many of these programs provide customers an incentive payment for installing energy-efficient equipment (a type of EE measure), estimating (or “deeming”) future savings on the basis of detailed technical analyses and the results of efficiency evaluations. This approach has served efficiency programs well for years—and in many …
View Full ResourceThis technical brief presents trends in the cost of saved electricity for energy efficiency programs between 2009
and 2013. We collected and analyzed more than 5,400 program years1 of data collected in 36 states from 78
administrators of programs funded by customers of investor-owned utilities. These administrators provide
efficiency programs to customers of investor-owned utilities that serve about half of total U.S. electricity load.
Our key takeaways include:
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We find that the cost to efficiency program administrators of saving a kilowatt-hour (kWh) averaged
$0.028/kWh over the five-year period. The average program administrator cost of saved energy (PA CSE)
declined from
Energy is crucial to the operation of a modern industrial and services economy. Recently, there have been growing concerns about the availability and cost of energy and about environmental impacts of fossil energy use. Those concerns have rekindled interest in energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.
Many of the existing energy efficiency and renewable energy programs have authorizations tracing back to the 1970s. Many of the programs have been reauthorized and redesigned repeatedly to meet changing economic factors. The programs apply broadly to sectors ranging from industry to academia, and from state and …
View Full ResourceLight bulbs are perhaps the most familiar example of how standards have stimulated innovation resulting in improved consumer choice in wattage, color, warmth, and other factors. Anyone who has browsed the light bulb aisle at the hardware store lately knows that consumers can now choose between halogen incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), or light-emitting diodes (LEDs)—and save 25% to over 75% on utility bills…
View Full ResourceEnergy efficiency standards for appliances and other products are an incredibly effective tool for driving innovation, strengthening our economy, reducing harmful emissions, and – perhaps most importantly – saving consumers money. The cost savings for consumers are immediate, and lifetime savings outweigh incremental costs by a ratio of 4 to 1. In fact, even as the U.S. has significantly improved efficiency standards, actual retail prices for appliances have fallen when adjusted for inflation. Below are common questions about the impact of efficiency standards.…
View Full ResourceOften called the “first fuel” of the global energy system, energy efficiency is one of the most important steps that any government can take to move towards a sustainable energy system.. To check on the progress made on this front, the IEA Energy Efficiency Market Report tracks the core indicators of energy efficiency. This year, the report takes a new approach and expands the scope of analysis by examining the drivers of energy efficiency programmes in emerging economies, as well as the impact of those policies. Some of the questions that are addressed in this year’s report include: – Which… View Full Resource
Energy efficiency programs are in wide use, whether administered by state governments, city governments, or utilities. Because energy efficiency is often a low-cost means for reducing power sector emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expects it will be broadly used to comply with the Clean Power Plan, which sets greenhouse gas standards for existing power plants. This fact sheet compares the treatment of energy efficiency under two types of Clean Power Plan compliance approaches: rate-based or mass-based emission standards.…
View Full ResourceRural electric cooperatives (RECs) account for about 12% of all electricity sales in the U.S. Over the past decade, investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs) in the Southwest have greatly expanded their energy efficiency and other demand-side management (DSM) programs by implementing state-mandated programs providing incentives for customers to install energy efficient equipment and improve savings on the customer side of the meter.1 RECs in the Southwest region have invested in some programs to help their customers save energy, but in general REC energy efficiency programs in the Southwest achieve less savings as a percentage of sales compared to the programs offered …
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