[Graeme]

Amory Lovins on energy

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')NN: What are the most promising energy-saving technologies?

AL: There's no short list of technologies; energy efficiency can be greatly increased in essentially every use and sector, including uncompromised but safer cars, trucks, and planes, with three times the current efficiency; buildings saving 80 to 90 percent of their energy and costing less to build; and often several-fold more efficient factories.

Overall, the U.S. could save half its oil and gas and three-fourths of its electricity at a cost equivalent to about an eighth of their price. RMI's latest $30 billion worth of efficiency redesigns in 29 sectors have consistently found about 30 to 60 percent savings on retrofit, with two to three year paybacks, and about 40 to 90 percent savings in new facilities, with nearly always lower capital cost.

Moreover, energy-saving technologies keep improving faster than they're applied, so efficiency is an ever larger and cheaper resource. The big surprise is that integrative design -- not a technology, but a way of combining technologies -- can often make very big energy savings cost less than small or no savings. For more on how to achieve this, read my Stanford Engineering School lecture notes.

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