http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/a-new-energy-future-the-benefits-of-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy-for-cutting-americas-use-of-fossil-fuels America has the technological know-how and the resources to move away from dependence on oil and other fossil fuels and toward a cleaner, more secure New Energy Future. America’s dependence on fossil fuels poses challenges to America’s environment, economic health and national security. Each of those challenges is likely to become more critical in the years to come if we continue along our present path of increasing energy use and increasing imports of energy from abroad. A New Energy Future in which America is smarter about how we use energy and in which we tap our abundant supplies of clean, renewable, homegrown energy can address many of those challenges. Achieving that future will require America to set clear goals to guide our energy policies and to mobilize the scientific, economic and political resources we need to meet them. This paper examines the benefits, in terms of fossil fuel savings, of achieving a New Energy Future guided by the following goals: • Reduce our use of energy in our homes, businesses and industry by 10 percent by 2025. • Save one third of the oil we use today by 2025. • Harness clean, renewable, homegrown energy sources for at least a quarter of our energy needs by 2025. There are many ways that America can achieve these goals. This paper lays out one plausible pathway, which we call the “New Energy Future scenario,” by which the United States could achieve – and in some cases go beyond – the goals and save vast amounts of fossil fuels. By 2025, for example, the United States could: • Save 10.8 million barrels of oil per day, equal to four-fifths of the amount of oil we currently import from all other nations in the world. • Save 9.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year, nearly twice as much as is currently used annually in all of America’s homes. • Save 900 million tons of coal per year, or about 80 percent of all the coal we consumed in the United States in 2005. • Save 1.7 billion megawatt-hours of electricity per year, 30 percent more than was used in all the households in America in 2005. Achieving the energy savings and renewable energy targets listed above will not be easy, but it can be done. Reduce our use of energy in our homes, businesses and industry by 10 percent by 2025. • Cutting our use of energy in homes, business and industry by 10 percent would require reducing the amount of energy we are projected to use in 2025 by 27 percent. Taking advantage of America’s cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities could reduce our consumption of electricity by as much as 20 percent and natural gas by about 22 percent. Similar savings are possible for petroleum use. • A combination of new technologies (spurred by more robust federal investment in energy saving technologies and tax incentives) and energy conservation measures could provide the remainder of the savings needed to achieve the 10 percent energy savings goal. Save one third of the oil we use today by 2025. Sensible steps to improve the fuel economy of our vehicles, reduce the rate of growth of vehicle travel, and replace some of the oil we use with plant-based fuels could take us well beyond the goal of saving one third of the oil we use today by 2025, providing total savings of 10.8 million barrels of oil per day. • Increasing fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon by 2018 and to 45 miles per gallon by 2023 would yield oil savings of 2.4 million barrels per day. • Setting fuel economy standards for heavy-duty trucks would save 1.1 million barrels of oil per day by 2025. • Changing our transportation priorities so that the average American drives no more in 2025 than he or she does today could save 3.6 million barrels of oil per day versus projected use in 2025. • Replacing a share of transportation fuels with plant-based fuels like ethanol and biodiesel would save about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. • Realizing 10 percent energy savings from homes, business and industry would produce another 2 million barrels per day in oil savings. Harness clean, renewable, homegrown energy sources for at least a quarter of our energy needs by 2025. A variety of studies and industry projections suggest that tapping America’s abundant supplies of clean renewable energy could fulfill 22 percent of our energy needs by 2025 – and we could reach 25 percent renewable energy with technology advances that would enable us to fully tap our renewable potential. • Using plant-based fuels to substitute for oil in transportation and industry could supply about 4.5 percent of our total energy use in 2025. • Wind power could provide as much as 30 percent of America’s electricity by 2025 and possibly more as new technologies and practices allow for us to successfully integrate more wind power into America’s electricity mix. • Solar and geothermal power can combine to produce another 12 percent of America’s electricity, while an assortment of other renewable technologies – ranging from solar hot water heaters to geothermal heat pumps – can also make an important contribution. • Additional renewable energy could be generated using new technologies such as wave and tidal power or by achieving technological improvements that would enable us to expand our use of other renewable energy sources. To achieve the benefits of a New Energy Future, the United States must adopt policies designed to increase our use of renewable energy and tap America’s vast potential for energy efficiency improvements. America must also increase its investment in research and development of the next generation of clean energy technologies, as well as make the investments necessary to bring those technologies into wider use. http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/a-new-energy-future-the-benefits-of-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy-for-cutting-americas-use-of-fossil-fuels Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:21:21 -0500 http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/tomorrows-energy-today-how-to-ease-new-englands-energy-crisis-and-curb-global-warming-pollution-starting-now New England is heading for an energy crisis. Indeed, it may have already begun. Energy prices are high and increasingly volatile. The region’s energy infrastructure is strained. The long-term outlook for oil and natural gas supplies is questionable. And our use of energy contributes to a variety of environmental and public safety problems, not the least of which is global warming. A clean energy strategy that maximizes our region’s near-term potential to use energy more efficiently and generate more of our power from clean, home-grown renewable resources can address New England’s energy problems and dramatically reduce emissions of global warming pollutants – providing a “win-win” path forward for the region. In this report, we describe some of the many opportunities New England has to reduce its use of energy and tap local sources of renewable energy. We focus on addressing the biggest sources of energy use in New England, using technologies that are feasible today. Achieving the region’s near-term energy efficiency and renewable energy potential could shave our energy consumption by at least 18 percent and reduce the region’s emissions of carbon dioxide – the leading global warming pollutant – by at least 20 percent. Achieving New England’s clean energy potential will not happen all at once. And it will take investment, creativity and hard work. But the availability of vast Summaryamounts of energy efficiency opportunities and renewable energy potential suggests that New England’s energy problems are solvable – and that they can be addressed in ways that reduce our contribution to global warming and preserve the region’s environment, public health and economy. New England’s energy challenges are real and they are serious. • New England imports about 90 percent of our energy from other nations and other regions of the United States. If the region were forced to rely only on native resources we use today, our homes would be dark, our streets empty of cars and our businesses shut down for all but 2 hours and 15 minutes of every day. • Energy prices have been rising and are extremely volatile. Natural gas prices have fluctuated by a factor of four over the last four years, New Englanders paid record (nominal) gasoline and heating oil prices in 2005 and 2006 and electricity prices have spiked as well. Long-term trends in the oil, natural gas, and electricity markets suggest that higher and more volatile energy prices could become more common in the future. • New England’s traditional energy supply alternatives each come with significant drawbacks: • Coal burning is a major contributor to global warming as well as local environmental harm. In 2004, coal accounted for 6 percent of New England’s energy use, but 10 percent of its carbon dioxide pollution. • Nuclear power has proven to be very expensive and poses long-term challenges related to public safety, waste storage, terrorism and weapons proliferation. • Importation of liquefied natural gas from overseas poses potential public safety problems and would make New England more dependent on foreign nations for another major source of energy.Energy efficiency and renewable energy can address the region’s energy problems while reducing emissions of global warming pollution. By implementing technologies available today, New England can significantly reduce energy use and global warming emissions. Such technologies include: • Technological improvements to cars and light trucks that would enable vehicles to achieve average fuel economy of at least 33 miles-per-gallon over the next decade, and much better fuel economy in the years to come. • Improvements to heavy-duty trucks that can reduce their fuel consumption per mile by 29 percent. • Weatherizing homes in New England to reduce their use of fuel for space heating during the cold winter months and reduce air conditioning demand in the summer. • Improved water heaters and other major appliances for homeowners that achieve significant reductions in energy consumption. • More energy-efficient space heating, cooling and lighting equipment in commercial buildings. • More efficient motors in industrial facilities, along with smarter integration of motors into industrial processes. • Combined heat-and-power technology that allows business and industry to create heat and electricity at the same time – resulting in a large improvement in overall energy efficiency.In addition, New England can begin to tap its vast potential for renewable energy development. New England’s solar and wind energy resources are sufficient to power the entire region several times over. Taking advantage of only a small share of our renewable resources could enable us to replace 10 percent of the region’s electricity generation with new renewable energy in the near future. One scenario for near-term renewable energy development might include: • Building five offshore wind energy facilities of the same size as the proposed Cape Wind project off Massachusetts. • Installing 1,860 wind turbines in onshore locations in New England, requiring temporary disruption of less than 0.03 percent of the region’s land area and permanent impacts on only a small fraction of that area. • Installing solar photovoltaic panels on less than one-half percent of New England’s homes or 1.5 percent of its businesses. • Using cost-effective biomass resources from mill wastes and low-quality wood from our forests.A clean energy strategy for New England would have major benefits for the region. • A scenario that takes advantage of the region’s full near-term energy efficiency and renewable energy potential could: • Cut gasoline consumption by 21 percent. • Cut diesel fuel consumption by 13 percent. • Cut natural gas consumption by 22 percent.• Cut nuclear power production by 26 percent. • Cut coal consumption by 28 percent. • In addition, such a scenario could reduce the region’s emissions of carbon dioxide – the leading global warming pollutant – by nearly 20 percent, exceeding the near-term goals for emission reductions set out in the New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers’ 2001 Climate Change Action Plan and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Reductions of this scale would put the region on track to achieve its share of the emission reductions scientists say are necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. • Further opportunities for energy savings and renewable energy development exist in the region, including in technologies that exist today but were not included in this analysis (such as solar water heating and geothermal heat pumps) and technologies that could emerge over the next decade (like plug-in hybrid vehicles, biofuels from plant residues and energy crops, and small-scale wind energy). New England should pursue a clean energy strategy to provide an environmentally sound, economically wise, and long-term solution to its energy challenges. Specifically: • New England states should cap global warming pollution – and support a similar cap at the federal level – to achieve the emission reductions that scientists believe are needed to prevent dangerous, human-caused global warming. Global warming emissions in the United States must be stabilized at current levels by the end of the decade, reduced by at least 15 to 20 percent by 2020, and be reduced by at least 80 percent by 2050. • Each New England state should set concrete goals for energy savings and develop plans and marshal the necessary resources to achieve those savings. • New England states should remove remaining financial and bureaucratic obstacles to cost-effective energy efficiency improvements and the expansion of renewable energy production. • New England states should require utilities to devise and implement long-term, least-cost plans for securing electricity that take full advantage of energy efficiency and renewable energy. • New England states should impose aggressive codes and standards for new buildings and equipment and revise those standards frequently as technology improves. • New England’s leaders should use their influence to pursue necessary policy changes at the federal level and should involve the public in efforts to move the region toward a cleaner energy future. http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/tomorrows-energy-today-how-to-ease-new-englands-energy-crisis-and-curb-global-warming-pollution-starting-now Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:37:26 -0500 http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/on-the-rise-solar-thermal-power-and-the-fight-against-global-warming http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/on-the-rise-solar-thermal-power-and-the-fight-against-global-warming Thu, 08 May 2008 09:54:30 -0500 http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/americas-clean-energy-stars http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/americas-clean-energy-stars Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:35:15 -0600 http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/the-road-to-a-new-energy-future-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy-technologies-for-a-cleaner-more-secure-energy-future America can and must move away from our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels and toward a New Energy Future. We can do this by tapping into our abundant supplies of clean, renewable, home-grown energy sources and by deploying our technological know-how to use energy more efficiently. Recognizing the promise of energy efficiency and renewable energy to transform our economy, a group of environmental, consumer, labor and civic organizations have endorsed the New Energy Future platform, which consists of the following four goals: • Reduce our dependence on oil by saving one-third of the oil we use today by 2025 (7 million barrels per day). • Harness clean, renewable, homegrown energy sources like wind, solar and farmbased biofuels for at least a quarter of all energy needs by 2025. • Save energy with high performance homes, buildings and appliances so that by 2025 we use 10 percent less energy than we do today. • Invest in a New Energy Future by committing $30 billion over the next 10 years to the New Energy for America Initiative, thus tripling research and development funding for the energy-saving and renewable energy technologies we need to achieve these goals. In fall 2006, we released a white paper describing a plausible scenario for achieving those targets and estimating the benefits in terms of fossil fuel savings that would result. According to that analysis, America could achieve major reductions in the use of all fossil fuels by realizing the goals of the New Energy Future platform. By 2025, America could: • Save 10.8 million barrels of oil per day, equal to four-fifths the amount of oil we currently import from all other nations in the world. • Save 9.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year, nearly twice as much as is currently used annually in all of America’s homes and more than is currently used in all of America’s industrial facilities. • Save 900 million tons of coal per year, or about 80 percent of all the coal we consumed in the United States in 2005. • Save 1.7 billion megawatt-hours of electricity per year, 30 percent more than was used in all the households in America in 2005. Achieving these fossil fuel savings would help solve many of America’s pressing energy problems – ranging from dependence on foreign oil to global warming – and would likely do so while creating jobs and contributing to the longterm stability of America’s economy. This paper describes the technologies – many of which exist today – that can enable America to achieve the goals of the New Energy Future platform. Energy Efficiency Technologies Numerous technologies exist to reduce energy use in homes and businesses: • Home weatherization – including air sealing, insulation and window replacement – can cut energy use for home heating by 20 to 30 percent. • Efficient furnaces, like those meeting federal Energy Star standards, can cut energy use for heating by 20 percent compared to today’s furnaces and by 40 percent compared to those 20 years old or older. • Solar and heat pump water heaters can reduce energy use for water heating by half to two-thirds, and more water-efficient clothes washers and dishwashers can provide additional savings. • Businesses can save energy, too. Wal-Mart, for example, has already committed to reducing its in-store energy use by 20 percent. And one recent analysis found that the use of more efficient motors and improved controls in the industrial, electric and commercial sectors could reduce total U.S. electricity demand by as much as 15 to 25 percent. • New technologies and combinations of technologies – such as those included in zero-energy homes and low-energy commercial buildings – could lead to even more dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use in homes, business and industry in the years to come. Oil Saving Technologies America can significantly reduce its consumption of oil by making cars go farther on a gallon of gasoline, reducing the rate of growth of vehicle travel, and using plant-based fuels to substitute for some of the oil we use for transportation. • Fuel-efficient technologies like advanced engines and transmissions and improved electronics can improve the fuel economy of today’s cars by 50 percent or more, while hybrid-electric and other advanced vehicles make a 45 miles per gallon fuel economy standard feasible within the next two decades. Similar improvements can be made to the fuel economy of heavy-duty trucks. • High gasoline prices are already reducing the growth of vehicle travel in the United States, but expanding the range of transportation choices – through expanded transit and increased support for carpooling, telecommuting, walking and biking – could enable more Americans to avoid high prices at the pump and increasingly frustrating commutes. • Production of plant-based fuels like ethanol and biodiesel in the United States has more than doubled over the last four years, helping to reduce our dependence on petroleum. New technologies that convert plant residues and energy crops into biofuels could make biofuels a more promising alternative and allow us to further reduce our use of oil in transportation. • New automotive technologies – like “plugin” hybrids – are being developed that could bring the dream of 100 MPG cars within reach, or even eliminate the use of oil in vehicles altogether. Renewable Energy Technologies America has access to immense renewable energy resources from the sun, earth and crops and from the movement of wind and water. The technology to tap those resources is advancing rapidly and is increasingly competitive in cost with fossil fuel technologies. • The wind blowing through the Great Plains could generate enough electricity to power the entire country. Wind power installations in the United States have doubled over the last four years, and wind power is among the cheapest sources of new power generation in some parts of the country. • Solar energy could conceivably generate more than enough electricity to power the entire United States. The cost of solar panels has declined dramatically in recent years and solar power installations worldwide nearly doubled between 2002 and 2004. Continued advances in solar technology could bring solar power within reach of more Americans within the next several years. • Plant-based sources of energy, called “biomass,” already provide a substantial amount of energy in America and can provide even more. A federal advisory group has set a target of having biomass account for 5 percent of industrial and electric generator energy use by 2020. • Immense amounts of energy are contained within the earth. Experts estimate that as much as 100,000 megawatts of geothermal power – equal to about 10 percent of today’s electricity generation capacity – could be economically viable in the United States. Improving today’s clean energy technologies and developing tomorrow’s technologies requires a substantial investment in federal energy research and development. • Federal investment in clean energy research and development (R&D) has resulted in many technological breakthroughs with big dividends for America’s economy. A study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that R&D breakthroughs in just six energy efficiency technologies yielded economic benefits of about $30 billion on an R&D investment of about $400 million – a return on investment of 75-to-1. • Federal investment in energy research and development has declined dramatically from its peak during the energy crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The United States now spends less than half as much on energy R&D programs in the public and private sectors as it did in 1980. Clean energy programs have faced continued funding pressure in recent Bush administration budget proposals. • Increasing federal clean energy research and development funding to $3 billion per year – about triple today’s funding level – over 10 years would enable researchers to focus on several goals: o Improving the performance and economic competitiveness of existing clean energy technologies. o Redesigning our energy system to remove existing hurdles to improved energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy into our economy. o Designing new energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. o Reducing the cost of producing clean energy technologies and coordinating “real world” demonstration of those technologies. o Addressing any social or environmental impacts of clean energy technologies. The United States should adopt the goals of the New Energy Future platform and marshal the political, economic and scientific resources necessary to meet those goals. Public policy changes can play an important role in advancing the nation toward the goals of the New Energy Future platform. The following policies would represent a strong first step: Energy Efficiency in Homes, Business and Industry • Set strong energy efficiency standards for household and commercial appliances. • Strengthen residential and commercial building codes and ensure that they are adequately enforced. • Require utilities to meet growing energy needs through energy efficiency improvements before building new power plants. • Expand and invest in energy efficiency programs to help homeowners and businesses install the latest technologies in their homes and businesses. • Eliminate obstacles to the use of combined heat and power (CHP), which would dramatically improve opportunities for industrial and commercial energy efficiency. Oil Savings • Increase fuel economy standards for cars, light trucks and SUVs to 45 miles per gallon over the next decade-and-a-half and set strong fuel economy standards for heavy-duty trucks. • Set goals for the use of plant-based fuels like ethanol and biodiesel and enact policies that ensure that those fuels are developed cleanly and efficiently. • Encourage the development and use of advanced technology vehicles like “plugin” hybrids that can achieve 100 miles per gallon of gasoline or more. • Invest in expanded and improved public transit service, promote “smart growth” practices that reduce the need for driving, and encourage other transportation choices like telecommuting, carpooling, biking and walking. Renewable Energy • Enact a national renewable energy standard, similar to those already in place in 20 states, that would require a minimum percentage of the nation’s electricity to come from renewable sources. • Increase research and development funding to develop the next generation of renewable energy technologies. • Provide consistent, long-term tax incentives for the installation of renewable energy technologies. • Require utilities to prioritize renewable energy development over the construction of conventional power plants to satisfy electricity demand. http://www.environmentmaine.org/reports/energy/energy-program-reports/the-road-to-a-new-energy-future-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy-technologies-for-a-cleaner-more-secure-energy-future Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:15:15 -0500