Did you know that today is Energy Efficiency Day? You can be forgiven if you didn’t. After all, why designate just one day to this worthy cause when the other 364 days should also be about celebrating savings and striving to avoid waste? Some recent reports by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) help us understand just what energy efficiency means in terms of energy supply, climate, job and health benefits.
What about meeting our energy demand? The savings from energy efficiency efforts are staggering. Energy efficiency alone could provide one-third of total expected electricity generation needs by 2030, avoiding the need for an additional 487 power plants. U.S. electricity use has remained constant in recent years even as the economy grew, thanks to energy efficiency.
What about mitigating climate change? Energy efficiency investments can cut U.S. energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050, getting us halfway to our national climate goals. Achieving this level of savings would be worth more than $700 billion in 2050.
What about creating jobs? Energy efficiency employs 2.25 million people in the US today –more than the number of people who work in the coal, oil, gas, electricity and even renewable energy industries combined. We are proud to employ a small portion of those two-plus million people here at Metrus and across the 26 different states where we operate our ESA projects.
What about protecting our health? Reducing annual electricity use by 15% nationwide would save more than six lives every day, prevent nearly 30,000 asthma episodes each year, and save Americans up to $20 billion through avoided health harms annually.
Enjoy Energy Efficiency Day – and let’s work to make it a yearlong celebration each and every year.