Profitably Getting Off Coal: Negawatts

Two-fifths of the CO₂ that's slowly crisping our planet comes from power stations, mostly burning coal. Must we wait decades to test and build a costly new fleet of coal-fired plants that grab and store the CO₂ before it goes up the stack?

No: better, faster, cheaper investments can keep the lights on and the motors humming with less CO₂, less money, and more brains. The low-hanging fruit is mushing up around our ankles and spilling in over the tops of our waders while the tree pelts our heads with more fruit.

Modern efficiency can save three-fourths of all U.S. electricity at an average cost around 1¢/kWh-one-eighth the price. Over several decades, today's smarter solutions could displace all the coal, oil, nuclear and probably gas power plants, cheaper than just running them, even if building them cost nothing!

Three-fifths of the world's electricity runs motors. Making existing motor systems twice as efficient pays for itself in about a year, because buying the right 7 improvements gets 28 more for free. But even bigger, cheaper savings lurk in the systems that the motors operate.

Motors' biggest use is pumps. Out of the pumps come pipes, often redesignable. Cheaper low-friction redesign of a typical industrial pumping loop saved 92% of its pumping power by substituting fat, short, straight pipes for skinny, long crooked pipes. This is not rocket science.

Similar redesign triples the efficiency of air-conditioning systems in big buildings. Better yet, first improve the buildings' insulation, windows, and lights to provide comfort with little or no cooling. Buildings use 69% of U.S. electricity. Every use-lighting, cooling, fans, pumps, refrigeration, cooking, space and water heating, office equipment-offers radical efficiency gains that repay their extra cost in a few years, or in new buildings, often reduce cost. My own household uses only $5 a month worth of electricity.

Industry is another goldmine of "negawatts." Redesigning $30 billion worth of facilities in 29 sectors, my team has consistently found about 30-60% energy savings in old plants (paying back in 2-3 years) and 40-90% in new ones (generally reducing capital cost). One of the best-known examples, a Texas Instruments chipmaking plant, was built in Texas, not China-saving a thousand high-tech American jobs-because its efficient design cut its capital cost by 30%.

The main obstacle: 48 of the United States reward utilities for selling you more electricity and penalize them for cutting your bill. But your state utility commissioners can fix that with the stroke of a pen, and www.raponline.org can help them.

Stay tuned for more solutions!

 
Amory B. Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org)