Conservation

While the distribution and utilization patterns of energy resource consumption has been justified, it is unsustainable for future generations. Energy consumption will double in industrialized countries and triple in developing countries over the next 30 years.

Widespread availability of energy at an affordable cost is one of the most important factors in economic progress and improving the quality of life, but can result in wasteful energy use that in turn leads to environmental degradation. Energy conservation provides a range of resources that can simultaneously minimize energy consumption while keeping it widely available and affordable. More recently, energy conservation has been harnessed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and individuals such as Amory Lovins have widely (and successfully) promoted conservation as an alternative to the continued construction of new power plants.

Although thought of as a recent development, energy conservation has a long history. In ancient Greece and Rome, scarce and expensive fuel resources led architects and engineers to design both efficient buildings and heating systems. These advancements were largely lost after the fall of the Roman Empire, but were rediscovered during the European Renaissance, when improved chimneys and stoves were reintroduced. As early as 1618, German writer Franz Kessler wrote Holzsparkunst (Saving Wood), which promoted efficient heating systems in order to save Germany from deforestation. While the Germans learned this lesson, the French (and others) did not, and the introduction of efficient stoves into Paris in the 18th century simply made heat available to a large population, which led to rapid deforestation of the French countryside. Benjamin Franklin saw this same pattern in America and invented a more efficient stove to avoid a similar deforestation in America (which happened anyway).

The dilemma of conservation is that by reducing the energy required to do a specific task, the cost will also be reduced and people will use more of it. One of the best examples of this is the introduction of vehicle fuel economy standards in the United States, which made cars more efficient, but as a result, Americans increased the numbers of miles they drove by 151 percent over the next 25 years, five times more than the growth in population.

One of the more effective and widespread conservations employed in recent years are the promulgation of efficiency standards for a wide range of appliances as well as buildings. Refrigerators, air conditioners, furnaces, and light bulbs have become much more efficient, and building codes in many areas now mandate that new and renovated buildings must be very efficient.

Energy conservation has been aided by the introduction of smart meter and energy control systems, which allow even residential consumers to monitor and control their energy consumption. As is the case with most energy conservation measures, they are more likely to be adopted by consumers with the financial resources to do so, although governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly active in reducing energy use in low-income areas of developed nations and throughout developing countries. The introduction of more efficient appliances, low-power computers, and other technology has also made it possible to introduce them into areas depending on limited renewable resources such as solar photovoltaics.

Increasing and rampant energy consumption is polluting the global atmospheric environment through the emission of excessive carbon compounds, while it is gradually limiting access to energy for a substantial amount of the world’s population. Energy conservation is thus needed to reduce consumption of limited energy resources and to encourage the use of energy-efficient products in our daily life in such a way that would reduce environmental tradeoffs and ensure sustainable use.