How Far Energy Efficiency?

摘要

Analysts agree about the need for developing both new and cleaner energy resources. Atthe same time, some argue that energy efficiency can provide only a minimal role in meetingfuture energy needs. Hence, energy supply is encouraged while energy efficiency is supportedonly minimally. Analysts Douglas Lightfoot and Christopher Green suggest in a series ofpapers, for example, that there are practical limits that will constrain the rate of efficiencyimprovement to no more than about one percent per annum over the next 100 years. This paperexplores the assumptions that underpin such ?practical limits? and concludes that efficiencygains perhaps could more than double the rate suggested by Lightfoot and Green. The questionis not one of practical limits; rather, the issue is one of choosing to develop energy paths thatallow greater system efficiencies to emerge.