Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a great article about 10 innovations that will reduce the amount of energy we use in the future.
You’ll need a subscription to read the whole article, unfortunately. But I’ll give you a few choice “fair use” nuggets from the article so that you can see what it was about.
LED and compact fluorescent lighting are making a difference. “If each U.S. household replaced one regular bulb with a compact fluorescent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, consumers would collectively save more than $600 million a year.”
New air conditioning standards will save a lot of energy, and we’ll save a lot of money on our bills. “According to the Department of Energy, the higher standard will save a total of 4.2 quadrillion British thermal units, or “quads,” of energy from 2006 through 2030 — enough of a saving that utilities will be able to forgo building 40 new power plants nationally. Consumers, meanwhile, will save about $1 billion by 2020.”
New building codes will also make a difference. “Experts say the latest version is shorter and less complex than the previous one; for instance, it divides the nation into eight climate zones instead of 19. At the same time, the new rules set more-ambitious goals for energy savings. The code hasn’t yet been certified by the Department of Energy, but many states are moving ahead to consider it anyway. Energy-efficient building codes are expected to reduce primary energy use in the U.S. enough to save consumers $10 billion annually by 2010.”
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