Group items tagged

The leaders of 15 countries and the European Commission met in Washington DC yesterday to promote join efforts on energy efficiency strategies and initiatives

n 2010, thermal energy displaced hydro as the major source of energy generation for the Chilean Central Interconnected System.  Coal, natural gas, and diesel supplied over 50% of energy consumed while hydropower accounted for 48%.  This trend is expected to continue in 2011 if current water shortage conditions persist. (El Mercurio, 1/4/11)  Last year’s drought created a 26% increase in thermal generation as compared to 2009.

The Regional Energy Efficiency Strategy initiative led by Bun-ca has reported an energy savings of 9368 MWh over the past six years, equivalent to 4992 tons of carbon dioxide, by working with 190 companies in the industrial and commercial sectors to become more energy efficient.   Recently UNEP’s En.lighten study estimated that Costa Rica could save 276,000 MWh and $27.6 million per year if they changed all light bulbs to CFLs.  The cost of this change was estimated to be $22.63 million.  (El Financiero CR, 1/3/11)

The Mexican government is planning to invest four billion dollars to build a one thousand megawatt renewable energy storage facility in Northern Mexico.   The facility will use a special kind of sodium sulfide batteries for the project which is expected to be completed in the next six years.  (Clean Techies, 1/6/11)

Last week New Scientist reported that US emissions could be cut by more than 7 per cent if people changed their ways at home. Separate studies in US, Dutch and British homes have reported that 26 to 36 per cent of domestic energy use is "behavioural" – determined by the way we use machines, not the efficiency of the hardware itself. This means that "machines designed to change humans", as the persuasive technology group of Stanford University, California, calls them, could save us huge amounts of energy and money. Energy awareness Many projects are trying to make that happen, with two main motivations. One is to understand which facets of human nature can be manipulated to change behaviour. The other is to develop technical strategies to do so.

Every occupant in a building creates demand for lighting, ventilation, thermal comfort, and electrical power. Lighting, heating, and cooling unoccupied spaces is a huge source of energy waste in buildings, and many studies have shown that building occupancy profiles have a significant impact on building energy use and operational controls. Closer alignment of occupancy patterns to building equipment schedules can be an effective low-cost/no-cost energy efficiency strategy leading to more intelligent control of buildings, a better balance between occupant comfort and energy savings, and lower utility bills. This includes, but is not limited to, HVAC temperature set points, lighting schedules, and economizer schedules.

* New approach seen to combat climate-warming carbon * Strategy would reduce atmospheric carbon concentration * Companies investigating "air capture" method