Astounding however true: The communique of the June 8 state and federal energy minister’s assembly made no point out of energy efficiency and administration as a method of serving to to handle our gasoline, coal and electrical energy disaster.
We appear to have no plan to handle energy demand in a disaster. Yet there are various methods to trim gasoline and electrical energy use. No surprise Australia scored 18th out of 25 international locations reviewed within the newest worldwide energy efficiency scorecard revealed by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
For instance, utilizing a reverse cycle air conditioner (RCAC) for heating can reduce gasoline and electrical energy use, but many should not used for heating as a result of individuals don’t recognise the advantages.
There are over 7 million air conditioners in houses in NSW, Victoria, ACT, South Australia and Tasmania, lots of that are reverse cycle items that may warmth in addition to cool.
If a RCAC replaces conventional electrical heating, it may possibly reduce electrical energy use by two-thirds to 80 per cent. If it replaces gasoline use with electrical energy sourced from something aside from gas-fired era, it avoids all gasoline heating energy.
Even if it replaces gas-fired electrical energy, it nonetheless saves 15 to 60% of gasoline heating, relying on the relative efficiencies of the gasoline and electrical gear. Even partly changing gasoline heating makes a distinction.
At the beginning of winter, a time when governments are starting to encourage switching from gasoline, and in a severe energy disaster, we must be serving to individuals to decide on probably the most environment friendly reverse cycle air circumstances.
However, the federal government energy ranking web site has not offered data for consumers for months. As proven within the screenshot under (from Energy Rating Calculator | Energy Rating on 10 June 2022), its calculator doesn’t present star scores. What a mess.
Where are the promoting campaigns telling us reduce gasoline and electrical energy waste? Why are gasoline and electrical energy retailers not contacting excessive customers to assist them reduce energy waste: they know precisely who these prospects are.
Our failure to get our act collectively on energy efficiency is a global embarrassment. In Europe, the mantra is ‘energy efficiency first’ and the International Energy Agency calls energy efficiency the ‘first fuel’. In Australia it is the ‘forgotten fuel’ – to our nice value.
Maybe we will study from the Japanese, who used energy efficiency to assist handle after the Fukushima catastrophe. Or we may mud off the early Eighties NSW marketing campaign that helped handle an electrical energy scarcity.
Alan Pears AM has labored on clear energy and local weather coverage for a number of many years. His work spans all sectors of the economic system, starting from sensible site-level initiatives to program improvement and implementation, coverage evaluation and training. He is a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University and a Fellow on the University of Melbourne’s Climate and Energy College