Why green tech?
- Electricity generation is the largest contributor of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the world. In the United States it exceeds that of all of transportation.
- Some 76 percent of our energy use is by buildings and homes, and our homes use more electricity than commercial buildings. Our buildings and homes become the most enticing targets for energy efficiency.
- World marketed energy consumption is projected to increase by 44 percent from 2006 to 2030. The demand for electricity will grow while electric utilities have strong incentives to refrain from building more power plants and help consumers save energy.
- Electricity rates in the United States are predicted to rise by as much as 12 percent in the coming years.
- Cleaner power-generating technologies like wind and solar will help rid our reliance on fossil fuels, but it could take decades for these clean energy sources to overtake the amount of fossil fuels used to produce most of our electricity.
- According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, the penetration of electronic devices and small appliances will drive their electricity consumption from 35 percent in the home today to 40 percent in 2020.
- By 2020, there will be 2.5 billion devices consuming power in U.S. homes.
- In 2008 the average household spent $330 on energy for electrical devices and small appliances, with the expenditure growing at an annual rate of 2 percent. The EIA forecasts that increased penetration of electronic devices will drive consumption from 500 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2008 to 630 TWh by 2020, rising from 35 percent of end-use residential electricity consumption in 40 percent in 2020.
- In the commercial sector, electricity represents the largest primary energy-saving opportunity.
[...] of Saving Energy-and are acting on it or looking to act on it. Our buildings and homes use most of our energy. And much of the low-hanging fruit in energy conservation can be addressed in our homes and [...]
[...] of saving energy-and are acting on it or looking to act on it. Our buildings and homes use most of our energy. And much of the low-hanging fruit in energy conservation can be addressed in our homes and [...]
Steven, You said,
“Cleaner power-generating technologies like wind and solar will help rid our reliance on fossil fuels, but it could take decades for these clean energy sources to overtake the amount of fossil fuels used to produce most of our electricity.”
I am curious if when you say “it could take decades” you mean that it could take decades because there isn’t enough money being spent to build wind and solar farms to make awesome amounts of clean energy…ie…it will take decades (at this current rate of build) to build enough farms…
Or if you mean it could take decades no matter what we do simply because the rate of electricity demand is increasing so fast?
Being a mechanical engineer who has worked on some energy projects across the world I find it alarming how little big industries like oil and gas and mining care about energy efficiency. They just don’t. It is a non issue.
But I guess that is not the biggest concern considering, like you say “Some 76 percent of our energy use is by buildings and homes, and our homes use more electricity than commercial buildings. Our buildings and homes become the most enticing targets for energy efficiency.”
Let’s just hope and pray that I invent the energy holy grail in a bottle. And we don’t pollute our earth so much that the polar ice caps completely melt….
Thanks.
Jamey
Hi Jamey,
It’s been a general consensus among energy experts that wind, solar and other renewable energy sources will take decades to replace oil and gas for a variety of the reasons you cited, and including aggressive renewable growth projections. Solar, wind et al only produce a sliver of our current energy needs, while fossil fuels are very well entrenched. I suspect, however, that as renewable energy gains momentum, along with electric cars replacing internal combustion-only engines, that it might not take until 2050, as many predict, for oil, gas and coal to be replaced by renewable energy resources.