Negawatt

Another great article from The Economist about the elusive Negawatt, the idea of increasing available energy on the grid through conservation instead of generation. There's a new study out that shows conservation has an average ROE of 17% with a minimum of about 10%. If you look around at today's market, with such small returns on savings, that's a great return. So why don't we do more conservation? The article points out that conservation is increasingly popular with business, but not as much with invididuals and examines many of the reasons for that. Its a great, information dense article in typical Economist fashion. I'm stil digesting it all, because ultimately it left me depressed. As the article rightly points out, there are "a series of distortions and market failures that discourage investment in efficiency."

Aye, there's the rub. As I see it, basically we have a system where companies make money by selling energy but don't suffer the financial consequences (climate change) from their activities.

We need to change the system. I'm learning more about carbon tax proposals, and am leaning in that direction. But something needs to be done.

I wish I was more optimistic that it would.

Photo: Amazing and borrowed from The Economist article