Energy Efficiency

The Definitive Guide to the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Source of Energy

Steven Fawkes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317143703
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Energy risk has reappeared on the corporate and social agenda with a bang and the complexity of the issues has increased many-fold since the days of the last great wave of concern following the oil crises of the 1970s. Steven Fawkes' Energy Efficiency is a comprehensive guide for managers and policy-makers to the fundamental questions underpinning energy-efficiency and our responses to it: ¢ what do we really mean by energy efficiency? ¢ what is the potential (in different dimensions)? ¢ why it is important? ¢ what management processes lead to optimisation of energy efficiency? ¢ what technologies are useful for improving energy efficiency? ¢ what policies can be used to promote energy efficiency? ¢ how can energy efficiency be financed? ¢ how can energy suppliers engage with energy efficiency? The result is the most comprehensive review to-date of the barriers and opportunities associated with improving energy efficiency. Clearly written and erudite, Steven Fawkes addresses every aspect of energy efficiency, including the huge and vitally important untapped potential offered by effective energy management and the application of existing technology. He also identifies barriers, such as the rebound effect and how they can be mitigated and he provides a comprehensive review of innovative energy efficiency financing options. This book is a 'must read' for anyone with an interest in energy supply and demand reduction.

1
What Do We Mean By Energy Efficiency?

What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.

Will Rogers, American humourist

Everything has changed but our way of thinking.

Albert Einstein, Theoretical physicist

Growing Interest in Energy Efficiency – Again

Interest in energy efficiency has grown significantly over the last five years, particularly so in the last three years. This growth has been driven by increasing energy prices and environmental concerns as well as increasing recognition of the value opportunity that energy efficiency presents in all parts of the economy. For those of us who have been active in energy efficiency for decades, since 1980 in my case, this increase in interest and activity represents the second up-wave during our careers. The last time there was as much interest in energy efficiency was between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s in response to the oil crises of 1973 and 1979 which saw oil prices rise to $34/barrel, about $100/barrel in today’s money.

This book is broad in scope rather than deep in any one aspect. It seeks to give a current overview of the issues and tries to offer insight into how we may effectively tackle the significant challenges ahead. Many other excellent texts exist which go much deeper on the various topics within energy efficiency, and some are referenced throughout. This book focuses on the various broad aspects of energy efficiency and covers:

• what do we really mean by energy efficiency?

• what is the potential (in different dimensions)?

• why is it important?

• what management processes lead to optimization of energy efficiency?

• what technologies are useful for improving energy efficiency?

• what policies can be used to promote energy efficiency?

• how can energy efficiency be financed?

• how can energy suppliers engage with energy efficiency?

Other topics could have been covered, and any of these could have been covered in depth, but that will have to await future books.

Where Are We Today?

I believe that we are at a critical inflection point for energy efficiency. Over the last two to three decades we have identified the potential and learnt and codified what works in energy management through standards such as ISO 50001 and IPMVP (International Performance and Measurement Protocol) – see Chapter 6 for more details. At the same time, incredible advances in technology, particularly around data, communication and materials, are giving us new approaches and new tools to allow us to design better equipment, systems and buildings that improve energy efficiency. In addition, new business and financial models are evolving and transforming energy efficiency into an attractive and practical investment opportunity, one which will continue to get attention from managers, entrepreneurs and investors even if there are reductions in energy prices.

As is often the case, however, government policy lags market reality on the ground, and in many countries governments are trying to catch up and accelerate the processes of improving energy efficiency. The challenge for policy makers and practitioners alike is how to massively scale up the deployment of energy efficiency. I believe that we know enough to do that; the question over the next decade or so is how successful will we be?

What Is Energy Efficiency?

We need to start a book on energy efficiency by defining energy efficiency and then putting it into its proper place in the context of the global energy scene. Definitions are needed as there is still confusion about the term ‘energy efficiency’, as well as associated terms such as ‘energy productivity’, ‘energy intensity’ and ‘energy conservation’. Putting energy efficiency into its wider context powerfully illustrates both the potential for improvement and the vital importance of the topic.

So what do we mean by energy efficiency, and some of the associated ideas and terms such as energy conservation, energy intensity, energy productivity and energy management? The term energy efficiency is widely used but is sometimes misused. It conjures up different images, associations and models for different people. The term also carries with it a lot of baggage, bringing with it outdated ideas that inhibit understanding, hinder acceptance and block effective action. It really is important that everyone who has any interest in energy efficiency starts from the same basic set of concepts, and this is particularly true today as the growth of interest in the subject has inevitably and necessarily brought in many new entrants without a solid technical grounding in energy matters or long experience of energy efficiency.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS THE WRONG TERM

There is a view, and it is one I am sympathetic to because it is technically correct, that the use of the term energy efficiency is misleading in the sense that we normally use it. First of all, as Walt Patterson, one of the great energy gurus, pointed out (Patterson 2005), using the term ‘energy’, which came into widespread use in the 1970s, is in itself misleading because it fails to distinguish between two very different things: fuel and electricity. As Walt says, you cannot power your computer or smart phone using gasoline, only electricity of the right voltage and current will work, and you cannot run your gasoline engine car on diesel fuel. Each specific type of technology requires fuel or electricity with very specific characteristics. Walt also points out that the term energy conservation is technically incorrect because, as all energy engineers know, energy is always conserved under the First Law of Thermodynamics. The term energy efficiency is also problematical because, for example, you cannot measure all the inputs of ambient energy from the sun or the atmosphere, occupants or equipment, or the useful energy output of a building. Ideally we would change the language of energy and energy efficiency, but the terminology is in widespread use and any attempt to avoid it or change it will lead to even more confusion.

Cullen and Allwood (2010) make a very useful distinction when considering energy efficiency. They distinguish between ‘conversion devices’ (power stations, engines and light bulbs, for example), which convert energy from one form into another, and ‘passive systems’ (such as buildings), where useful energy is finally ‘lost’ by degrading to low-grade heat in exchange for it providing us with useful services. You can measure the energy efficiency of a conversion device, i.e. the useful energy out as a proportion of the total energy in, but you can’t measure the useful energy out/total energy in of a passive system such as a building. You can only measure energy productivity, i.e. energy in/some useful output.

INEFFICIENCY EVERYWHERE

Whatever level we look at, the degree of energy efficiency, or perhaps more accurately inefficiency, is quite stunning. The energy efficiency of many everyday conversion devices is surprisingly low. A filament light bulb converts electricity into light with an efficiency of about 2 per cent; the rest of the energy put into the device is emitted mostly as heat, which is not usually useful. Fluorescent lamps have efficiencies of about 10 per cent, and power transformers for devices like computers and mobile phones are typically only 50 per cent efficient. At a global level, Cullen and Allwood (2010) reported that for a total input of 475 exajoules of primary energy (oil, coal, gas, biomass, nuclear and renewable), we get 55 exajoules of useful energy services (motion, heat, light, cooling and sound): an overall efficiency of 11 per cent. Although some of this is, of course, unavoidable because of the laws of thermodynamics and the limitations of practical machines, with all our ‘advanced’ technology it is still a surprisingly low number.

‘ENERGY EFFICIENCY’ EQUALS ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ENERGY PRODUCTIVITY

So the all-enveloping term ‘energy efficiency’ really incorporates two concepts. First, energy efficiency, useful energy out/energy in – usually reported as a percentage, for conversion devices. Secondly, energy productivity, usually reported as energy in/useful output, for passive devices. We are familiar with some everyday measurements of energy productivity, such as miles per gallon or litres per 100 kilometres for car fuel efficiency, and others including energy input to a building per square metre to produce a certain temperature for a certain period of time; energy use per passenger mile for aircraft; or energy per 1,000 tins of beans produced in a factory.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AS A PROCESS

When we talk about energy efficiency in a macro sense we often mean a series of processes rather than a status at a single point in time. The energy efficiency of all technologies tends to improve over time because there is a basic human desire to spend less, invent new technologies and improve existing technologies. The process of making many small changes to improve things could be called ‘tinkering’, although applying that term to modern, focused development engineering seems disrespectful. As well as these constant incremental technological changes, there are the major paradigm-busting changes, such as a complete change of processes, that work to improve energy productivity over time. Improvements in energy efficiency are generally mirrored by improvements in the productivity of other resource use.

The process of improving energy efficiency or reducing energy input for a given output is a process of technical and/or behavioural change that is driven by technological, financial, management, social and political drivers and constraints. ‘Energy’, in the form of oil, gas, coal, or uranium, is made up of a set of unique physical resources. Therefore, the process of improving energy efficiency is actually the process of improving the productivity of energy resource use – in the same way as the process of improving productivity of any other resource, physical or human. So when we commonly talk about ‘energy efficiency’ we really mean ‘the process of improving the productivity of energy use’. In later chapters, this book addresses the management of the process, the technologies that can be used, the social factors and policies that can accelerate or impede the rate of improving energy efficiency.

ENERGY INTENSITY

Energy intensity refers to the overall energy efficiency of an economy measured as energy usage per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), typically in tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per $1,000 of GDP. The inverse of energy intensity, which is not so widely seen, is ‘economic energy efficiency’ – how many units of GDP are produced for each unit of energy. Energy intensity is influenced by the stage of economic development of an economy, the structure of the economy, climatic conditions, as well as overall energy efficiency. As countries start to industrialize, energy intensity tends to increase as the economies move from primarily agricultural activities to industrial activities. Once this change has occurred, energy intensity then decreases. This reduction is driven by structural shifts in the economy, e.g. a move away from heavy industry to lighter industry or services, as well as overall energy efficiency, a pattern that has been seen many times in many countries (Rühl et al. 2012).

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

Energy management includes the management processes and tools used to manage both the supply side and the demand side of energy systems. Primarily, energy managers are the people who focus on the energy management processes, although energy management can, and must, involve far more people than just dedicated energy managers. Some energy managers are more involved in the issues of energy supply such as securing supplies at the best price and assessing risk levels, while some are more involved in energy demand, i.e. reducing energy input for a given output. Since the 1980s, the term ‘energy manager’ has been most associated with the demand side, i.e. managing the process of improving energy efficiency, but an integration of supply and demand functions is sensible to obtain optimal results. We will explore the demand side of the energy management process in Chapter 6.

ENERGY CONSERVATION

The other term often heard in discussions of energy efficiency is energy conservation. Energy conservation is often used interchangeably with energy efficiency although they are not the same, and fortunately this does appear to be happening less frequently. The term energy conservation became popular in the wake of the oil crises of the 1970s. Policy makers at the time talked about the three pillars of energy policy: coal, nuclear and conservation, all three together summarized as ‘conuco’. Energy conservation means reducing energy use by reducing output. To use our examples from above, it means reducing the space temperature in the building, i.e. reducing comfort, producing fewer or inferior tins of beans, or driving fewer miles. There are many examples where energy conservation, saving by doing less, can and does make sense. However, it is one of our basic beliefs that people and organizations don’t like to make do with less output or comfort and we cannot, and should not, base our energy decisions on conservation.

Development inevitably means increasing economic output, and some proponents of sustainability believe that the future will involve making do with less and giving up output or comfort. I do not think this is either likely or indeed desirable. We live in a world where 1.3 billion people exist without any electricity (IEA 2012) and, despite good progress on global poverty reduction, about the same number live at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’ (Prahalad 2005) on an income of less than $1.25 a day. An energy strategy based on doing less cannot practically or ethically be applied to the poor people in the developing world, or even the poorer parts of the developed world, an increasing number of whom are in fuel poverty.

We need to generate more wealth and more jobs everywhere in the world, particularly in the developing world where low incomes help drive social and international problems. But we also need to do this in developed countries which have been severely affected by the global financial crisis. What we need to do is grow output and make every unit of output much, much more energy efficient. The evidence at both the micro and the macro levels is that:

• we can do this to an extent beyond what is commonly held to be possible;

• it is financially attractive to do this;

• we know how to do it, we have the technologies and the management tools;

• doing it will reduce costs, reduce carbon emissions, increase the profitability of firms and create real jobs.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

Perhaps surprisingly there is still confusion between energy efficiency and renewable energy. Energy efficiency is about reducing the end use of energy for a given output. Renewable energy is just another way of generating heat or electricity. Renewable energy does not reduce end-use efficiency, although it is clearly a way of substituting or reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. There is a difference between reducing the end use of electricity or fuel and substituting a renewable source for it. Renewable energy systems can help to achieve a higher overall efficiency in the electricity system if they can reduce peak loads and thereby avoid additional, usually inefficient, power stations being ramped up, e.g. by using solar in sunny climates to reduce peak air conditioning loads. But they should not generally be thought of as part of ‘energy efficiency’.

D3 – DEMAND MANAGEMENT, DEMAND RESPONSE AND DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

Another important area to be clear about is the difference between energy efficiency, demand response and distributed generation. A useful term to encapsulate all aspects of energy demand-side issues is D3, which was first used in the UK a f...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Foreword by The Rt Hon Gregory Barker
• 1 What Do We Mean By Energy Efficiency?
• 2 The Global Energy System – Stresses and Strains
• 3 Potentials and Barriers
• 4 A Systematic View of the Benefits of Efficiency
• 5 Jevons, Rebound and Backfire
• 6 Management Techniques
• 7 Energy Management Examples
• 8 Technologies for Energy Efficiency
• 9 Designing for Energy Efficiency
• 10 Financing Energy Efficiency Investment
• 11 Energy Efficiency Policies
• 12 Energy Efficiency Policy Examples
• 13 Energy Suppliers and Energy Efficiency
• 14 Summary and Conclusions
• Appendix 1: The Energy Efficiency Ecosystem
• Appendix 2: Energy Conversion Table
• Index