Why Does Energy Efficiency's Promise Remain Unfulfilled ?
Why Does Energy Efficiency’s Promise Remain Unfulfilled? Among the many measures the world can take to wean itself off fossil fuels, few match the benefits of making homes, business, and cars more energy-efficient. But financial and psychological barriers have kept individuals, businesses, and governments from realising efficiency’s great potential. Energy-efficiency investments are the best type of energy investments. And yet, energy efficiency still isn’t the hot ticket it might be. Compared to various emerging types of energy generation, it doesn’t command the same attention or interest. And the amount invested in the sector doesn’t match the amount you might expect from a rational point of view. There’s what the economist Todd Gerarden calls an “energy paradox” or an “energy-efficiency gap”–a divergence between what economics says should happen and what is happening. Why? That’s the subject of a new paper by Gerarden, a PhD candidat...
