Energy efficiency by major country

Energy efficiency is one of those measurements that is losing a lot of meaning. Yes it is better if you can light your bedroom with 9 watts where it once required 150 because you have substituted LED bulbs where once there were halogen bulbs.  And it is almost certainly a good thing if you can transport 5 people in a vehicle that gets 35 mpg instead of one person in an SUV that gets 7 mpg.  But when the subject is climate change, these changes start losing their importance.  Why?  Because increases in efficiency can EASILY be used up simply by getting more people using the more efficient devices.  And since efficient devices are usually cheaper to operate, more people can afford to enter the market for such devices.

This means that while energy-efficient devices can make a finite supply of energy go farther, at the end of the day the non-renewable resource has still been used up.  So the brainpower going into making devices more energy efficient would be better used to redesign the machinery to stop using carbon-based fuels altogether.  When it comes to solving the problems of climate change, fuel substitution is far more important than energy efficiency.  That doesn't make efficiency unimportant because while the supply of solar energy is essentially infinite, the solar panels and the places to put them are not.

So the strategy is still—make your energy-using device as efficient as possible and THEN start changing out the source of power.  This is the strategy my brother used to get his house to net zero.  You don't have to do it this way but if you do not, you will just wind up buying a bunch of extra solar panels.  And while solar panels have gotten a LOT cheaper in the past few years, they are still a long way from being free.

Germany is most energy efficient major economy, study finds

Ranking places Mexico last and voices concern about the pace of efforts by the United States and Australia

AFP theguardian.com, 18 July 2014

Germany is the world's most energy efficient country with strong codes on buildings while China is quickly stepping up its own efforts, an environmental group said Thursday.

The study of 16 major economies by the Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranked Mexico last and voiced concern about the pace of efforts by the United States and Australia.

The council gave Germany the top score as it credited Europe's largest economy for its mandatory codes on residential and commercial buildings as it works to meet a goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020 from 2008 levels.

"We are pleased to win a second title in a week's time," Philipp Ackermann, the deputy chief of mission at the German embassy in Washington, told a conference call, alluding to his country's World Cup victory.

Echoing the views of the report's authors, Ackermann pointed out that Germany has achieved economic growth while improving efficiency and reducing harmful environmental effects of the energy trade.

"We all agree , I think - the cheapest energy is the energy you don't have to produce in the first place," Ackermann said.

"Our long-term goal is to fully decouple economic growth from energy use," he said.



The study ranked Italy second, pointing to its efficiency in transportation, and ranked the European Union as a whole third. China and France were tied for fourth place, followed by Britain and Japan.

The report found that China used less energy per square foot than any other country, even if enforcement of building codes is not always rigorous.

"There's a lot more China can do, they do waste a lot of energy as well, but they really are making quite a bit of progress," said Steven Nadel, the council's executive director.

The study found a "clear backward trend" in Australia, where prime minister, Tony Abbott, is sceptical about the science on climate change. On Thursday, Australia abolished a controversial carbon tax.

Australia was ranked 10th, with the council praising the country's efforts on building construction and manufacturing but placing it last on energy efficiency in transportation.

The study ranked the United States in 13th place, saying that the world's largest economy has made progress but on a national level still wastes a "tremendous" amount of energy. more