SustainableBuilding reports that the UK government is going to include “negawatts” into their energy bill. Negawatts is a term coined by the chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute and environmentalist Amory Lovins in 1989, who recently spoke at the eceee summer study.
Government puts ‘negawatts’ in Energy Bill
The Government included the ‘negawatts not megawatts’ plan in its Energy Bill with companies that make energy-efficient products being able to take part in ‘capacity auctions’.
As power station developers bid to build capacity, measured in megawatts, energy-saving companies could also bid with measures to remove the need for that capacity measured in negawatts. A pilot scheme is being set up to test the plan.
Energy minister Greg Barker said: “This puts hard-pressed consumers concerned about bills and those worried by climate change on the same page. As a policy, it’s a double win.”
Andrew Warren, Director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: “This is a tremendous triumph for common sense. It is frequently far cheaper in strategic terms to save electricity than it is to generate electricity. It is very welcome news that at long last the Government is legislating so negawatts will be able to compete on an even playing field with conventional megawatts.”
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 