ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Energy efficiency is using less energy to provide the same level of energy service। For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature। Another example would be installing fluorescent lights and/or skylights instead of incandescent lights to attain the same level of illumination। A 13 watt fluorescent light bulb outputs the same amount of visible light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb, so you are getting the same amount light for less energy.[2] Efficient energy use is achieved primarily by means of a more efficient technology or processes rather than by changes in individual behaviour.[3]

Energy efficient buildings, industrial processes and transportation could reduce the world's energy needs in 2050 by one third, and help controlling global emissions of greenhouse gases, according to the International Energy Agency.[4]
Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy policy.


Energy कोन्सेर्वतिओन

Energy conservation is broader than energy efficiency in that it encompasses using less energy to achieve a lesser energy service, for example through behavioural change, as well as encompassing energy efficiency. Examples of conservation without efficiency improvements would be heating a room less in winter, driving less, or working in a less brightly lit room. As with other definitions, the boundary between efficient energy use and energy conservation can be fuzzy, but both are important in environmental and economic terms. This is especially the case when actions are directed at the saving of fossil fuels.[20]


If the demand for energy services remains constant, improving energy efficiency will reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, many efficiency improvements do not reduce energy consumption by the amount predicted by simple engineering models. This is because they make energy services cheaper, and so consumption of those services increases. For example, since fuel efficient vehicles make travel cheaper, consumers may choose to drive further and/or faster, thereby offsetting some of the potential energy savings. This is an example of the direct rebound effect.[22]
Estimates of the size of the rebound effect range from roughly 5% to 40%.[23][24][25] Rebound effects are smaller in mature markets where demand is saturated, and in markets with inelastic demand curves (versus elastic demand curves). For example, if the amount of time people spend driving is largely determined by their commuting distance and the degree of gridlock they encounter, and not by the price of gasoline, then the degree of the rebound effect will be smaller than if gasoline price was the primary determining factor in distance driven. The rebound effect is likely to be less than 30% at the household level and may be closer to 10% for transport.[22] A rebound effect of 30% implies that improvements in energy efficiency should achieve 70% of the reduction in energy consumption projected using engineering models.
Since more efficient (and hence cheaper) energy will also lead to faster economic growth, there are suspicions that improvements in energy efficiency may eventually lead to even faster resource use. This was postulated by economists in the 1980s and remains a controversial hypothesis. Ecological economists have suggested that any cost savings from efficiency gains be taxed away by the government in order to avoid this outcome.

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