amory lovins energy efficiency

Right now, there’s over a century of encrusted and assiduously lobbied-for and defended subsidies to almost every kind of energy. Using his own home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains as an example, Lovins shows how simple … I think it is important to get the result, not to get it for the reason you want. The alternative, which Lovins called "the soft path," favored "benign… Why should I fix up the building if the landlord owns it, and why should the landlord fix it if I pay the bills? Amory Lovins came to prominence in 1976 when he published an article in Foreign Affairs called "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" We moved in in January 1984, after a year and a half of construction. If you want to know how, please go to rmi.org/Stanford.e360: What is the importance of language choice in trying to spread these ideas and their adoption?Lovins: It’s extremely important. The rowing, the heavy work, will and should be done by the private sector in its co-evolution with civil society. If they are concerned about climate protection, they may like to know that energy efficiency can provide it not at a cost but at a profit. In his 2011 book - Reinventing Fire - Lovins made a case for energy transformation in society using business- and market-driven techniques. Or, there’s the well-known split incentive. And I should emphasize, RMI is completely apolitical and nonpartisan. You have to speak to people’s concerns in their language.e360: How do we get people to focus on these issues right now, given everything else that’s going on in the country and the world?Lovins: By speaking to their concerns in their language. And saving three-quarters of the electricity would take several decades, because we would need both to build new things in a much smarter way and to retrofit existing buildings and factories — bearing in mind that about 70 percent of our electricity goes to buildings and 30 percent to factories.Now, there are ways to speed this up, like mass retrofits. The Plowboy Interviews spotlights Amory Lovins, energy Analyst and environmentalist and author of the 1976 essay, "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" Amory Lovins SAE, cofounder and chairman emeritus of Rocky Mountain Institute, ... a practitioner of integrative design for advanced energy efficiency … And government, Lovins says, “should steer, not row.”Yale Environment 360: You have called energy efficiency “the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest, fastest way to provide energy services.” How do you quantify that claim? It’s a more powerful method than either fuel taxes or efficiency standards. Of a Radical Green Energy Path, Fen Montaigne is senior editor of Yale Environment 360 and author of the book, Fraser's Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica. In 1976, physicist and environmental activist Armory B. Lovins published an article, “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?” in Foreign Affairs.This excerpt from his article highlights what he termed “soft energy paths”: low-tech, environmentally safe, distributed energy forms including energy efficiency and renewable energy. For example, the point is to cool people or materials, not buildings or equipment. • Forest Defenders: A Panamanian Tribe Regains Control of Its Lands, As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit. This is, of course, consistent with the policy framework I suggested a moment ago, in which all technologies should compete on merit, not by lobbying power.e360: How important are (the recent) elections in moving in the direction you’re talking about?Lovins: Well, we’ll see. Remember, though, that many of the big energy choices are not made in Washington, although that matters. The candidates had quite different energy platforms. That is, the core truth of today’s energy dilemma is that whether you care about security, climate or prosperity, you should do exactly the same things about energy. Amory Lovins founded the Rocky Mountain Institute in 1982 to promote energy efficiency. Amory Lovins is one of the country's foremost leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency. And in the retrofit projects we typically save 30 to 60 percent of the energy with two- or three-year paybacks. If they are concerned about national security, energy efficiency is probably the best way to get it. Lovins has always focused on solutions that conserve natural resources while also promoting economic growth; Texas Instruments and Wal-Mart are just two of the mega-corporations he has advised on improving energy efficiency. Overview: Transforming Land and Sea for a More Sustainable World, In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise, Filthy Water: A Basic Sanitation Problem Persists in Rural America, How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline, How Biden Can Put the U.S. on a Path to Carbon-Free Electricity, Amid Tensions in Myanmar, An Indigenous Park of Peace Is Born, As South Africa Clings to Coal, A Struggle for the Right to Breathe. Amory Lovins Lays Out His Clean Energy Plan, Fraser's Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his latest book, which describes his vision of how the world can attain a green energy future by 2050. You used the word jargony, for me it sounds gimmicky.Lovins: Well, tastes differ. That is, we make very large energy savings cost less than small or savings. If they are concerned about education, they may like to know that students learn 20 odd percent faster in well day-lit classrooms and efficient schools have money left to hire teachers and buy books. The most important way to speed it up would be to reward utilities for cutting our bills, not selling us more energy. On the mainstage of VERGE 19, Joel Makower discuss energy efficiency with Amory Lovins, Cofounder and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. And, of course, they are in a race with Toyota and everybody else to do that. And if that happened, that would be the most single powerful lever in getting utilities excited and engaged in efficiency, rather than averse or at least indifferent to it because it hurts their profits.Second, to get efficient cars on the road quickly, the federal government should incubate at a state and regional level and then take nationwide a system of size-neutral and revenue-neutral “fee-bates”. The first, supported by U.S. policy, promised a future of steadily increasing reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear fission, and had serious environmental risks. Most encouraging, he says, is … Energy efficiency the keyLovins’ basic premise is that improving the way we use energy is the key to the future. The topic that most occupies Lovins thinking nowadays is energy efficiency. Voters have chosen one, and if that’s what they get, I think it would be constructive. Just move the electrons and leave the heavy nuclei at home. So that would be 24 years, now almost 25. It is rated (mileage) the highest in the market, although they pulled it off the market some months ago, because it sold poorly, not because it isn’t a great car, but because the two-seat segment in extremely small. Power Q&A: Amory Lovins The energy-efficiency guru who cofounded the Rocky Mountain Institute advocates feebates, negawatts, and letting the little guys play. Lovins argued that the United States had arrived at an important crossroads and could take one of two paths. They have a habit of producing the most efficient cars on the market in any given time. As Big Energy Gains, Can Europe’s Community Renewables Compete? Hardly lacking in confidence or ambition, Lovins — in conjunction with his colleagues at the institute — has published Reinventing Fire, his step-by-step blueprint for how to transition to a renewable energy economy by mid-century. Unlike standards, it rewards continuous innovation and improvement, and it makes more profit for the automakers. RMI engages businesses, communities, institutions, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effectively shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. Shares. I’ve saved a lot of commuting by now. For four decades, Amory Lovins has been a leading proponent of a renewable power revolution that would wean the U.S. off fossil fuels and usher in an era of energy independence. I would predict that those not in favor will include all the incumbents, who are quite happy with the present arrangements they paid a lot of money for.e360: What are the top three things the federal government needs to do right now to get the rules right?Lovins: Well, I won’t include the utility reform I referred to earlier, which is technically called decoupling and shared savings, because that’s done by state utility commissions. Amory Lovins lectures at Stanford University as the visiting MAP/MING Professor of Energy and Environment The key is integrating all four energy-using sectors—and four kinds of innovation. On U.S. Public Lands, Can Biden Undo What Trump Has Wrought? And retooling for energy efficiency will require “barrier-busting” at many levels. That reform is adopted in a handful of states but pending in about another two dozen. Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)’s mission is to transform global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future. So if what we mean is, as in my case, doing more and better with less energy and money, but with more brains and technology, then we should call it energy efficiency or raising energy productivity. But they are going to replace it under the same name with a four- or five-seat hybrid. Most economic theorists assume that energy efficiency—the biggest global provider of energy services—is a limited and dwindling resource whose price- and policy-driven adoption will inevitably deplete its potential and raise its cost. Students will also get to tour Amory Lovins's famous energy efficient home in Snowmass, CO - and check out his indoor greenhouse / banana crop! Amory Lovins, hero of environmentalists and adviser to Fortune 500 firms, says it's time for bold changes in energy and transportation, focusing first on efficiency… Energy efficiency, a bigger energy “source” than oil, avoids at least twice as much global greenhouse gas emissions as renewables’ remarkable growth. And another important way to make retrofits much cheaper is to coordinate them with retrofits and renovations you’re doing anyway for other reasons. For example, how large, how cheap, how fast? What do you drive?Lovins: I drive a 2001 Honda Insight aluminum hybrid that is rated at 64 miles a gallon. Amory Bloch Lovins … There is no trade-off or compromise required. Then I took a lot of video conferencing, rather than flying. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, and other magazines. In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they are not. The car has, I think, 3,000 miles a year, most of which is driving to and from the airport. Our next fab design after that, by the way, will save about two-thirds of the energy and half the capital costs. But for people not in the energy business they are jargony, so instead of negawatts, we can say just “saved electricity.”e360: So the term negawatts actually came to you by spotting a typo?Lovins: Yes, they meant to type megawatts, but it came out negawatts, and I said: What a nice term! For example, most gas and electric utilities are regulated very largely at the state level.e360: What would be the first concrete thing that President Obama and/or the new Congress ought to do here?Lovins: It’s not for me to say what their political priorities should be. On U.S. Public Lands, Can Biden Undo What Trump Has Wrought? They’re very lopsided. Under a fee-bate system, the less efficient ones would pay a corresponding fee, that would then be used to pay a rebate on the more efficient ones. Amory Lovins: Integrative design for radical end-use efficiency, in electricity and all other forms, and all sectors. Sign up for the E360 Newsletter →, Amory Lovins on Why Energy Efficiency is the Key. And you’ll find in there a slate of innovative policy measures, going well beyond fee-bates, to support rather than distort the business logic that makes it very profitable to get completely off oil, led by business, at an average cost of $15 a barrel. We work in all sectors, but most of our work is with the private sector, because we actually want to get things done.e360: How far can the private sector take us, and at what point do we need to bring the general public along as well?Lovins: I think government should steer, not row. Last Thursday I spent a half hour onstage in San Francisco discussing energy trends and choices with the energy analyst Amory B. Lovins and green business maven Joel Makower. By Fen Montaigne You need to drop in a lease rider to share equitably the costs and benefits of the retrofit.e360: You do focus mainly on the business side, is that right?Lovins: Yeah. We should be paying energy costs through our energy bills, not through our tax bills. And government, Lovins says, “should steer, not row.”. Amory Lovins on Why Energy Efficiency is the Key In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Amory Lovins, co-founder and chairman of Rocky Mountain Institute, says that world’s biggest untapped energy source is efficiency. And I think the broad framework that makes the most sense for energy policy would be to let all ways to save or produce energy compete fairly, at honest prices, no matter which kind they are, what technology they use, how big they are, where they are, or who owns them. We sat down with him to talk about potential challenges and solutions in renewable energy and I hope you enjoy the podcast. "Engaging, intense, informative, exhausting at times, wonderful, completely worthwhile" -Student, 2020. Who should apply? This widens the price spread between more and less efficient models, enough so that you will pay attention to lifecycle fuel savings, not just the first year or two. Our latest data center design saves about 80 percent of the energy and 15 to 50 percent of the capital cost, depending on whether they buy anyway the chillers they will no longer need.Or, we had a recent design for a mine that will use no fossil fuel and no electricity; it runs on gravity. For example, a company or an individual hiring an architect or an engineer would do well to pay that designer for — or, pay those designers for what they saved, not for what they spend, which is the traditional method of compensation. The government should get the rules right. There are arguments here for essentially every constituency and political view. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his latest book, which describes his vision of how the world can attain a green energy future by 2050. The talk (preceded by my performance of … More importantly, though, I don’t commute by car, because my trip to work is 10 meters across the jungle in the middle of my passive solar banana farm.e360: And how long has that been your situation?Lovins: Oh, let’s see. It was built in Texas, not China, because, together, we were able to cut out 30 percent, or $230 million, of capital costs, while saving a lot of energy and money. Amory Lovins: Oh, for example, in the United States we could save at least half the oil and gas and three-quarters of the electricity we use, and that efficiency investment would cost only about an eighth [of] what we’re now paying for those forms of energy.e360: How fast could we do that?Lovins: To get completely off oil — half from the supply side and half by redoubling the efficiency of using oil — would take ’til the 2040s, if we did it about a third slower than we saved oil from 1977 to ’85, when we were last paying attention. Yet its potential is far larger. According to energy expert, Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the energy industry has vastly misunderstood the scope of the energy efficiency resource. Overview: Transforming Land and Sea for a More Sustainable World, In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise, Filthy Water: A Basic Sanitation Problem Persists in Rural America, How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline, How Biden Can Put the U.S. on a Path to Carbon-Free Electricity, Amid Tensions in Myanmar, An Indigenous Park of Peace Is Born, As South Africa Clings to Coal, A Struggle for the Right to Breathe. Those terms are unambiguous. Most climate modelers explicitly or tacitly use economic theory as the dominant framework for assessing potential technological gains in energy end-use efficiency (Lovins 2018a) 1.Economic theory tends to treat energy efficiency as a limited and dwindling Ricardian resource (like … Lovins claims that it’s design, not technology that can achieve incredibly energy efficiency gains. That’s because we use integrated design to get expanding, not diminishing returns. Similarly, if you look at our economist book six years ago, Small is Profitable — that’s smallisprofitable.org — you’ll find a pretty complete agenda for reforming the electricity system to let big and small technologies compete fairly, with huge advantage to the public.e360: Can you give us a couple of real-life success stories that you’ve experienced in the private sector?Lovins: A well-known one, with Texas Instruments, was their new chip-fab — that is, a microchip-making plant — in Richardson, Texas. But in the new facilities we save more — typically 40 to 90 percent — and the capital cost almost always goes down. Germany’s Unlikely Champion Can Geothermal Power Play a Key Role in the Energy Transition? A fee-bate is a combination of a fee and a rebate. Amory Lovins, the owner of the house, is exactly the guy you’d expect to live here. I talked to a wide range of audiences and for some it is not appropriate. The concept was developed after Amory Lovins authored an article published in the March 21, 1985 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly arguing that utility companies will sell less electricity and more efficiency by marketing 'negawatts'. And retooling for energy efficiency will require “barrier-busting” at many levels. A $500 billion investment in energy efficiency right now would pay off in $1.2 trillion in savings down the road, says Jon Creyts, a program director at Lovins’ think tank, Rocky Mountain Institute. Let’s use it!e360: Do you find that people respond to that? Forest Defenders: A Panamanian Tribe Regains Control of Its Lands, As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit. By barrier-busting, I mean enabling people to respond to the price signals they see, and use energy in a way that saves money, by turning into a business opportunity each of the 60 or 80 well-known obstacles or market failures in buying efficiency. Amory B. Lovins is fond of referring to the Rocky Mountain Institute, where he serves as chairman and chief scientist, as a “think and do” tank, and it’s clear that to Lovins the doing is every bit as important as the thinking. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Amory Lovins, co-founder and chairman of Rocky Mountain Institute, says that world’s biggest untapped energy source is efficiency. I’ve given you at least a quick sketch of the big three things. For four decades, Amory Lovins has been a leading proponent of a renewable power revolution that would wean the U.S. off fossil fuels and usher in an era of energy independence. I am driving in a lot of snow and slush and mostly in snow tires, and it gets 61-point-something.e360: How does that get that mileage?Lovins: Well, it weighs only 1889 pounds. Amory B. 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