Benefits of new energy building codes

Barbara Vergetis Lundin writes in Fierce Energy about new research from one of the US national laboratories that quantified the savings from federal funding for more ambitious energy building codes. Interestingly, for every US$1 the Department of Energy spent on building energy codes, US$400 in energy cost savings resulted. Building code energy efficiency dollar … Continue reading Benefits of new energy building codes →

Explaining why electricity use is declining

Steven Nadel writes on the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) website about his analysis to explain why electricity use is declining in the U.S. It would be good to see equivalent analysis for Europe or other regions. Let us know. U.S. Electricity Use is Declining and Energy Efficiency May be a Significant … Continue reading Explaining why electricity use is declining →

This will get the Irish singing – renewable energy playing key role in energy policy

Tina Costanza writes in siliconrepublic.com that the use of renewable energy has already saved importing more than €1 billion. This will definitely be welcome news to a country that has been making every effort to get out of the financial crisis that has punished the economy. Renewable energy has saved Ireland more than €1bn … Continue reading This will get the Irish singing – renewable energy playing key role in energy policy →

Treading water?

A new survey in the UK found that that while many companies have invested in energy efficiency, the savings have been erased by the energy prices they are paying. Andrew Bounds writes in the FT about the situation in the UK. What it fails to show is what would have happened if those companies had … Continue reading Treading water? →

Quote of the week

Willem Post recently wrote in The Energy Collective about how high energy costs are damaging the German economy. Gabriel has previously argued that Germany's energy transition poses a serious threat to the country's economy even though he was an early promoter of the International Renewable Energy Agency. More and more we are reading about the … Continue reading Quote of the week →

Reaping the benefits of energy efficiency

Barbara Vergetis Lundin writes a good article in Fierce Energy about the economic rewards from energy efficiency investments in US programmes. It will be good to see whether other studies are finding similar results in Europe and abroad. Energy efficiency investments reap three times the economic rewards The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) has … Continue reading Reaping the benefits of energy efficiency →

Impact of energy-efficient homes

A study in Ireland shows that investing in improving the energy performance of homes brings good dividends to the overall asset value. This post was written by Paul Melia of the Irish Independent. Energy-efficiency measures add 10pc to home value Homeowners have added almost 10pc to the value of their homes by investing in … Continue reading Impact of energy-efficient homes →

Having a sober look at the impact of energy efficiency measures

Understanding the true energy savings from investing in energy-efficient roducts has been an on-going problem for analysts and policy makers. Patrick Collinson writes in the Guardian about the UK’s Energy Saving Trust downgrading of claims for savings on new boilers and loft insulation. It will be good to hear of other efforts to find out … Continue reading Having a sober look at the impact of energy efficiency measures →

Harvesting the benefits of LED lighting

Eleanor Harding recently wrote in the UK’s Daily Mail about the effect that LED lighting is having on growing strawberries. Essentially, LED lighting confuses the fruit into thinking it is summer. Wish it worked that way for all of us but this is a good start.Strawberry yields forever: LED lighting fools plants into thinking it's … Continue reading Harvesting the benefits of LED lighting →

Explaining the drop in energy consumption in Australia

Hugh Saddler, a research associate at the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at Australian National University, analyses the recent drop in energy demand in Australia in an excellent article in the Climate Spectator. The demand drop mystery explained Until 2010, for well over a century, through two world wars and the Great Depression, … Continue reading Explaining the drop in energy consumption in Australia →