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$mart Power Energy is the life breath of modern society. Without energy, almost every event we take for granted comes to a screeching halt. If you happened to live on the eastern side of North America during the blackout of 2003, you will acutely understand how life without electricity changes everything. For a few dozen hours, modern life stopped— completely: people stuck in elevators; no building or traffic lights; traffic gridlocks; no air conditioning, cell phones, computers, television or email. The entire world appeared to go black.
$mart Power was written to help you, the urban homeowner or renter demystify the technology and economics required to make your journey down the road to energy efficiency and renewable energy production an enjoyable and profitable affair. There are numerous books on ways of saving your energy dollar. Do this, change that—a hundred steps that are supposed to conserve energy and save money. The problem is that many texts do not cover the steps in an order that ensures that you are completing these upgrades in a manner that is profitable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. What about the environment? Climate change is one of the key challenges facing worldwide sustainable development. Global warming, caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and inefficient use of energy, is pushing ecosystems to the brink of catastrophic failure. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased dramatically since the industrialization of society over the last 150 years and are at the highest levels measured during the past 500,000 years. Global energy use amongst industrialized countries is continuing to increase unabated. Underdeveloped countries, where more than one–third of the world’s population does not have access to electricity, are starting to ask for their fair share of the energy pie. Exponential human population growth and accompanying energy consumption are expected to cause global temperatures to increase between 2 and 5.8°C over the coming century, according to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued in 2001. This temperature increase sounds innocent enough until you realize that a change of this magnitude has never previously occurred and will amplify weather effects throughout the earth’s ecosystems. Increased levels of drought, flooding, and storms in areas already sensitized to these environmental stresses will result. The press and respected scientific papers are full of articles describing the effects of climate change: melting glaciers, reduced arctic pack ice, increasing ocean water levels, and the destruction of coral reefs. These ecologically sensitive issues are harbingers of far more devastating events to come. Using less energy isn’t about making drastic lifestyle changes or sacrifices. Conservation and efficiency measures can be as simple as improving insulation standards for new buildings, replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent models, or replacing an old refrigerator with a more efficient one. In fact, energy efficiency often provides an improvement in lifestyle. A poorly insulated or drafty house may be impossible to keep comfortable no matter how much energy (and money) you use trying to keep warm. California learned firsthand that saving energy means saving money and the environment. You may recall the rolling blackouts and severe power shortages that afflicted the state a few years ago. It was predicted that dozens of generating stations would be required on an urgent basis to solve the state’s energy problems. At the time of writing, the total number of power stations built to solve the problem stands at zero. Faced with the realization that construction cycles for significant generating capacity would require several years, forward-thinking officials looked to energy efficiency instead. The state’s energy–efficiency standards for appliances and buildings have helped Californians save more than $15.8 billion in electricity and natural gas costs. One–third of Californians cut their electricity use by 20% to qualify for a 20% rebate on their bill. The government introduced a renewable-energy buy-down and accompanying net-metering program that has seen thousands of clean, photovoltaic power systems installed on residential rooftops. In addition to saving electricity and reducing fossil fuel burning, California’s conservation and efficiency efforts reduced greenhouse gas emissions by close to 8 million tonnes and nitrogen oxide emissions by 2,700 tonnes during 2001 and 2002. Not sure if you can make a significant difference at home? Consider the following points: Many of the items on this list are neither expensive nor difficult to implement. Best of all, implementing these products not only dramatically reduces smog and greenhouse gas emissions, but also provides a rapid payback by inflation-proofing your home against rising energy costs and putting dollars in your wallet. The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population (300 million out of 6.4 billion) and consumes a whopping 30% of all of the world’s resources. This includes not only energy but also water, steel, aluminum, timber, and just about everything else you can imagine. When we enter a Wal-Mart or local grocery store, it is difficult to imagine that there could possibly be shortages of anything we desire. Unfortunately, present levels of consumption are not sustainable in the long term. Consider for a moment that if all of the world’s population were to consume sources at the same level as the United States, we would require approximately 20 times current levels. In other words, we would require an additional seven planets worth of stuff and energy. Indeed, with China, Russia, India and many other emerging-economy nations with combined populations many times that of the United States, it will not take long before our resources dry up and ecosystems give up in frustration. Many people simply do not believe this. I have personally heard educated people say that climate change, air pollution, and fossil fuel shortages are the fabrications of doomsayers and quacks. However, scientific evidence suggests that these environmental hazards are not a fabrication, but pose a definite threat. Although frugality or erring on the side of caution is currently not in vogue in North America, I would suggest that this generation has a responsibility to our children and our children’s children to not squander our resources. Our current way of life includes the belief that cheap energy is our God-given right. Never mind that the cost of gasoline or imported heating oil does not include the vast subsidies lavished on the oil industry. The price of a gallon of gasoline neglects the ongoing American military presence in the Middle East, depletion subsidies, cheap access to government land, as well as monies to advance drilling and exploration technologies. None of these “hidden” costs even touches on the environmental and health damage caused by the burning of fossil fuels. For example, air pollution, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, kills an estimated 16,000 Canadians prematurely each year and results in hundreds of thousands of incidents of illness, absenteeism and asthma attacks—costing the economy billions of dollars. If the same level of direct subsidization were to be heaped on the renewable energy industry, the smoke stack would become as common as the manual typewriter. Fossil fuels don’t just power our cars. Home heating and coal-fired electrical power plants rely on fossil fuels as well. Contrary to popular belief, it is the electrical power-generation industry and not the transportation sector that contributes the largest amounts of smog, acid rain, and green house gas emissions to the world’s ecosystems.4 With much of the developing world’s population connecting to the electrical grid every day, it is obvious that world energy demand will mushroom as more (and larger) appliances are brought online, further exacerbating the problem. In the developed world, middle class families are demanding more and more appliances that were considered luxury items only one generation ago. Central air conditioning, multiple refrigerators, computers, chest freezers, hot tubs, and swimming pools, all luxury or unimaginable items in our parents’ day, all consume enormous amounts of energy. Energy efficiency and demand-side management of these electrical loads will only go so far. No matter how efficient our appliances are, energy is still required to power our homes and factories. Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and working towards cleaner energy supplies based on the efficient use of natural gas, biofuels, geothermal and renewable sources will go a long way toward creating a carbon-neutral energy supply. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has introduced a program to get major power utilities to switch from high-carbon fuels—especially coal—to cleaner options. The key technologies and policies of their Powerswitch! program include: By adopting demand-side management and efficient appliances, focusing on conservation, and shifting to cleaner fuels and renewable energy supplies, homeowners like you and me will be less vulnerable to energy price increases and security of supply problems and will help protect the world’s ecosystems. After all, if we don’t get involved, who will? |
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