The Global Ecology Center pictured above on the campus of Stanford University is a model of efficiency and conservation. It is one of 10 projects showcased by the American Institute of Architects for excellence in sustainable design principles and reduced energy consumption.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working toward the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency. The Energy Star program was created in 1992 by the EPA in an attempt to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission by power plants.

Buildings

Europe is actively developing more energy efficient buildings. The US Green Building Council advocates a more environmentally sensitive and more energy efficient way of building. LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

The Center for the Built Environment is carrying out research to make buildings more people friendly, economical and energy efficient. The American Building Technologies Program works to improve the efficiency of buildings and the equipment, components, and systems within them.

In buildings, energy efficiency means using less energy for heating, cooling, and lighting. It also means using energy-saving appliances and equipment in a building.

An important concept for energy efficiency in buildings is the building envelope, which is everything that separates the interior of the building from the outdoor environment. Various approaches can help improve the building envelope. Insulated or thick walls are crucial. Storm windows and doors can reduce heat loss when temperatures drop. In warm regions, windows with special glazing can let in daylight without heat gain. The State of California in its effort to reduce energy consumption has enacted mandatory energy efficiency standards for new buildings.

An energy approach advocated by the City of Austin, Texas has a goal of Zero-Energy Capable, meaning that a home will be energy efficient enough to be a net-zero energy home with the addition of on-site energy generation, such as solar photovoltaics. This level of energy efficiency is approximately 60 percent more efficient than homes built to code today. Information is available on Austin’s Green Building Program.

Building Heating & Cooling

Heating and cooling systems typically use the most energy in a building. In homes, the addition of efficient controls, like a programmable thermostat, can significantly reduce the energy use of these systems. Some homes can also use zone heating and cooling systems, which reduce heating and cooling in the unused areas of a home. And in commercial buildings, integrated space and water heating systems can provide the best approach to energy-efficient heating.

The energy used to heat water can be reduced by both heating water more efficiently and by reducing hot water use. In a home, an older water heater can be replaced with a newer, more energy-efficient one, and the water heater and hot water pipes can be insulated to minimize heat loss.

This guide provides many ideas on how to make homes more energy efficient.

Energy Efficient Appliances

Today, most common appliances and electronic devices are available in energy-efficient models—from clothes washers and refrigerators to copiers and computers. Often purchase of a more energy efficient appliance can pay for itself in reduced energy costs over its lifetime. Several energy-efficient lighting options, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, are also available.

Power Plants

Energy efficiency in the power industry can lead to postponing - or altogether avoiding - the construction of new power plants. The efficient generation of power is only one way a power plant can pursue energy efficiency. New technologies applied to the storage of energy and the transmission of energy contribute to energy efficiency. The Electric Power Research Institute has initiated energy efficiency research to improve energy efficiency by using the latest technology, thereby reducing electricity usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy storage can also make an electric utility system operate more efficiently. The most familiar way to store electricity is using batteries, but many other technologies have been developed, ranging from pumping water uphill to trapping electrical current in superconducting loops of wire. Transmission lines lose a percentage of the electricity passing through them because of resistance, which causes the wires to heat up. Superconducting materials have no resistance, and if they are used to transmit electricity in the future, very little of the electricity will be lost.

Vehicles

The need to reduce dependence on imported oil, combined with the link between vehicle emissions and air pollution and global warming, should prompt the development of significant emission and fuel economy standards for car manufacturers. This obvious development has been slow to occur at the national level in the largest world consumer of fossil fuels. Raising gasoline taxes in order to increase the incentive for purchase of more fuel efficient cars is another action of potential significant impact. Some links relating to advanced transportation technologies may be found at this State of California site.

Use of alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, methanol, natural gas, and propane, which reduce or entirely eliminate harmful emissions can also be encouraged by national policy. Brazil has been quite successful in this regard. With the exception of natural gas and propane, these fuels also have the potential of being generated from renewable resources, such as ethanol from sugar cane or corn, or electricity from wind energy.

Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs), which can either switch between two fuels or run on a mixture of two fuels (such as gasoline and ethanol), are now available. In addition, recent developments in both AFVs and petroleum-based vehicles, such as advances in engines, drive trains, and emission-control technologies, may double or triple the efficiency of current vehicles. Some of these new technologies include (1) hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), which combine an engine with an electric motor, and (2) fuel cells, which produce electricity by converting a fuel (generally hydrogen and oxygen) into water.

Conservation

Conservation of energy means using less to accomplish the same goals. Conservation combines technical improvements in energy efficiency with the consumption of only that energy that we actually need. Turning out lights in an unused room is an example of the human side of conservation. When energy programs focus on this approach together with increased efficiency, the impact on energy use can be substantial. Even more significant are the cost savings in power plants and distribution systems that do not have to be built. Using energy more efficiently offers an economic bonanza - not because of the benefits of stopping global warming but because saving fossil fuel is a lot cheaper than buying it.

As an example of the significance of efficiency, while energy use per person in the rest of the United States increased by 45 percent between 1975 and 2005, California’s per capita use remained relatively flat as a result of the state’s more rigorous energy policies. In a 2005 Energy Report, the State Energy Commission concluded that California could save an additional 30,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy from energy efficiency programs over the coming decade.