The Potential of More Efficient Buildings

摘要

The recent global agreement on climate change places much needed emphasis on the key role that innovation in energy technologies can play in finding practical solutions. But the priorities identified by the White House, Bill Gates, and his partners in the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and most others focus on innovations in the production and storage of electricity. Such innovations are clearly essential, but most proposals have ignored the importance of innovations that can achieve large gains in the efficient use of electricity in buildings. This is particularly troubling because in the United States, 76% of electricity is used in buildings-and because it's easily possible to cut this by a factor of two or more with affordable technologies. A number of obstacles keep commercial investment in energy research well below levels that the nation needs. But the barriers facing commercial investment in building energy technologies are particularly great. Federal research investment is essential for filling the gap. Yet federal research spending on building technologies is less than 3% of research spending on new electric generation. Research priorities should be set by considering an integrated system of production, transmission, distribution, storage, and consumption. The goal is to improve the quality of delivered energy services, such as lighting and comfortable spaces reliably, and at the lowest possible economic and environmental cost. Framed in this way, the imbalance becomes clear: we are underinvesting in technologies that have enormous potential to deliver improved energy services and lower costs. As things stand now, we're building an increasingly sophisticated electric generating system to power antiquated and inefficient building systems.