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Energy efficiency-low consumption in industry.

Appliances are another huge success story for energy efficiency, driven largely by mandatory

federal standards. Laws passed in 1987 and 1992 have saved over $15 billion in energy costs.

According to "Energy Innovations," a study sponsored by the Alliance to Save Energy,

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Natural Resources Defense Council and

the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), standards adopted to date are expected to save

consumers $130 billion over the long run. Economic benefits to consumers of the new standards

exceed their costs by three times on average.

Under the 1997 Montreal Protocol, governments agreed to phase out chemicals used as

refrigerants that have the potential to destroy stratospheric ozone.

While commercial buildings have become more efficient in the last 20 years, that progress has

been somewhat offset by huge increases in the use of personal computers, copiers and fax

machines. But the technology is getting better. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)

Energy Star Office Equipment Program has registered 2,000 computer, printer and monitor

models as energy-efficient, and it estimates the program will save 17,000 gigawatt-hours per

year by 2010. According to "Energy Innovations," residential and commercial energy use can be cut an additional 25 to 50 percent using technology available today. Modern energy-efficient appliances, such as refrigerators, freezers, ovens, stoves, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers, use significantly less energy than older appliances. Current energy efficient refrigerators, for example, use 40 percent less energy than conventional models did in 2001. Following this, if all households in Europe changed their more than ten year old appliances into new ones, 20 billion kWh of electricity would be saved annually, hence reducing CO2 emissions by almost 18 billion kg. In the US, the corresponding figures would be 17 billion kWh of electricity and 27,000,000,000 lb (1.2×1010kg) CO2. According to a 2009 study from McKinsey & Company the replacement of old appliances is one of the most efficient global measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Lack of information is one of the biggest reasons why consumers aren't able to fully exploit their potential energy savings. Government, utilities and industries acting together can help lower the cost of getting information to consumers similar to labeling food products makes it easier to select the cheapest, most nutritional ones. New technologies on the horizon will greatly lower the cost of informing electric utility customers, demystifying the relationships between consumption and your bill.

7. Energy efficiency in buildings, transport, appliances. Appliances are another huge success story for energy efficiency. Laws passed in 1987 and 1992 have saved over $15 billion in energy costs. According to "Energy Innovations," a study sponsored by the Alliance to Save Energy, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), standards adopted to date are expected to save consumers $130 billion over the long run.



 

Transportation is another sector where former conservation gains are now imperiled by new trends. While cars increased their miles per gallon (mpg) performance 60 percent between 1973 and 1988, big gas-guzzling autos and SUVs are now reversing this progress. SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks are subject to much less stringent requirements than cars, so the net effect has been an erosion of fuel efficiency. Rail is the most fuel-efficient alternative for moving both goods and people. There has been lots of energy-efficiency progress. High-speed passenger bullet trains, like those in use in Europe and Japan. European mass transit is safe, clean, fast, reliable and relatively inexpensive. Another growing trend in automotive efficiency is the rise of hybrid and electric cars. Hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, use regenerative braking to recapture energy that would dissipate in normal cars;

 

Better BuildingsGlobally, buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of the total world annual energy consumption. Most of this energy is for the provision of lighting, heating, cooling, and air conditioning. Increasing awareness of the environmental impact of CO 2 and NO x emissions and CFCs triggered a renewed interest in environmentally friendly cooling, and heating technologies.

The ways of reducing building energy consumption are:

One way of reducing building energy consumption is to design buildings, such as Low-energy buildings, which are more economical in their use of energy for heating, lighting, cooling, ventilation and hot water supply.

Low-energy buildings typically use high levels of insulation, energy efficient windows, low levels of air infiltration and heat recovery ventilation to lower heating and cooling energy.

Building insulation refers broadly to any object in a building used as insulation for any purpose. New compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use only one-fourth as much energy as standard bulbs to achieve the same illumination. While CFLs are expensive, they can pay their cost back in two to four years, and they last much longer than a standard bulb.

 

 

Energy saving programs and legislation in Kazakhstan. Demand for power in Kazakhstan is growing at a rate of 5 to 7 % per annum and existing generation facilities are becoming unable to meet the growing generation deficit. The majority of electricity is produced in aging coal-fired power stations and transmitted over thousands of kilometers to customers.

In this regard the development of renewable energy in Kazakhstan will have a number of benefits. It will reduce emissions of pollutants from the Kazakh power sector, it will reinforce the stretched transmission system and reduce losses and it will provide a hedge against volatile international fossil fuel markets. Legislation for renewable energy in Kazakhstan is expected to support the development of up to 2000MW of wind power and up to 1000MW of new small scale hydro-electric power generation by 2024 and meet the Government’s indicative target of 5% of power to be generated from renewable sources.

8.


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 981


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