Coupon-Clipping Our Way to Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency. Bored yet? Efficiency is simply doing more with less. It's the coupon-clipping effort of green energy. But like saving 50 cents on Tide month after month, year after year, the effort can really add up. And it needs to: Energy demand is expected to grow 30% by 2030. That estimate would be even higher if not for tightened standards in building codes and appliances, which are expected to reduce consumption by an impressive 23% over business-as-usual.

Preliminary results from a new energy efficiency study show just how valuable our energy scrimping and saving could be, reporting potential energy savings of more than 10% over the next two decades.

The study, presented jointly by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), suggests that a little frugality is just what America's power economy needs. However, these gains definitely aren't low-hanging fruit: The researchers say that a major overhaul of green building codes, thrifty appliance standards and effective consumer education are all crucial to making progress.

"This study demonstrates the potential of energy efficiency to offset some of the projected need for new electric generation as cutting-edge technologies become available and are adopted," said Dr. Michael Howard, senior vice president at EPRI. "We think a 7-percent efficiency improvement is realistic – and gains of 11 percent or more are technologically feasible – depending on the degree to which various obstacles can be overcome."

For example, direct energy feedback devices auto-respond to electricity price spikes and the 80 PLUS standard guarantees 80%+ efficiency on power supplies. To reach the 11% "feasible" range, however, we'll need to access ultra-miserly technologies like ductless, variable refrigerant flow AC and energy-lite data centers.

The authors also give us some surprising facts about our energy-hungry way of life. That 42" plasma TV you love so much sucks up 2.5 times as much power as a sub-HD 27-incher. The two "free" cable boxes that DVR "30 Rock" for you use as much energy in a year as a large fridge (and jack up electric bills in the process).

Diane Munns, Executive Director at EEI, stressed the importance of saving energy, saying, "To maximize utility investment in efficiency programs, energy efficiency must be treated as an energy resource on par with new generation."

On the high end, say the authors, changes to our power use could save 560 billion kWh and slice 25% off peak energy demand. Not bad results from clipping coupons.

Bonus Link: For PowerPoint fans out there, PDF presentation slides are available and kind of interesting.