Potential Impact of Adopting Maximum Technologies as Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards in the U.S. Residential Sector

摘要

The US Department of Energy (US DOE) has placed lighting and appliance standards atrna very high priority of the U.S. energy policy. However, the maximum energy savings and CO_2rnemissions reduction achievable via minimum efficiency performance standards (MEPS) has notrnyet been fully characterized.rnThe Bottom Up Energy Analysis System (BUENAS), first developed in 2007, is a global,rngeneric, and modular tool designed to provide policy makers with estimates of potential impactsrnresulting from MEPS for a variety of products, at the international and/or regional level.rnUsing the BUENAS framework, we estimated potential national energy savings and CO_2rnemissions mitigation in the US residential sector that would result from the most aggressivernpolicy foreseeable: standards effective in 2014 set at the current maximum technology (MaxrnTech) available on the market. This represents the most likely characterization of what can bernmaximally achieved through MEPS in the US.rnThe authors rely on the latest Technical Support Documents and Analytical Toolsrnpublished by the U.S. Department of Energy as a source to determine appliance stock turnoverrnand projected efficiency scenarios of what would occur in the absence of policy.rnIn our analysis, national impacts are determined for the following end uses: lighting,rntelevision, refrigerator-freezers, central air conditioning, room air conditioning, residentialrnfurnaces, and water heating. The analyzed end uses cover approximately 65% of site energyrnconsumption in the residential sector (50% of the electricity consumption and 80% of the naturalrngas and LPG consumption).rnThis paper uses this BUENAS methodology to calculate that energy savings from MaxrnTech for the U.S. residential sector products covered in this paper will reach an 18% reduction inrnelectricity demand compared to the base case and 11% in Natural Gas and LPG consumption byrn2030 The methodology results in reductions in CO_2 emissions of a similar magnitude.