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In theory, there are several basic economic and psychological motivators that motivate people to be more sustainable. It is easy assume that providing people with information that using less energy is more cost-effective would motivate a shift toward conservation. However, Fischlein observed that there is often an “energy-efficiency gap,” or a difference between what is economically efficient and what actually gets done. Fischlein stated that “more information alone is not enough,” as increasing awareness has been shown to increase knowledge while motivating little behavioral change.   According to Fischlein, even raising the price of energy might not promote a decrease in consumption because energy exhibits low price elasticity. She also observed “psychological licensing” related to energy use, which effectively means that people lose a sense of moral responsibility for their actions because they have to pay to consume. Motivating altruistic conservation is also difficult because energy use is not visible, so people cannot see the impact of their actions in any direct way.

The boom in cheap natural gas in this country is good news for the environment, because relatively clean gas is replacing dirty coal-fired power plants. But in the long run, cheap natural gas could slow the growth of even cleaner sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.

The report says that officials continue to drag their feet on energy-saving renovations, only using a little over half of the nearly $186 million granted California for efficiency projects by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.

Ukraine seeks to reduce its current dependency on gas imports. To address the issue, a number of initiatives are being taken which are aimed at boosting energy efficiency, introducing energy saving technologies and renewable energy resources. The feed-in tariffs effective since April 2009, rank among the highest in Europe, which considering the saturated European market, makes Ukraine especially luring for the foreign investors in the field. As forecasted by the government, in the next 3-4 years Ukraine will be able to attract about 3 billion dollars of private investments for the development of renewable energy production.

But a deeper analysis requested by the Guardian shows that only one in three homes, or about 10.3m households, will see the predicted reductions in their combined bills as a result of installing one or more of the renewable energy or efficiency measures, or receiving the Warm Home Discount for low-income and vulnerable households. Meanwhile the majority of bill payers, 19.1m, will see an average increase in their bills, over and above the extra costs of rising fossil fuel prices and huge investment in the electricity grid.

As shown through theory and case study, speed control of refrigeration components provides maximum flexibility, control and energy efficiency

There are several incentives for using speed control on screw compressors: - Drive control will reduce the power penalty associated with slide valve, poppet valve, or throttling capacity control. On compressors with no capacity control, speed control will eliminate other poor control strategies. - Drive control will reduce wear and tear associated with slide valve action. - Drive control allows a precise suction pressure to be maintained. With slide valve, a broad dead band is often maintained to avoid excessive wear. - Drive speed control provides compressor size reduction with the same system capacity demand.