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ACEEE BLOG POST
Media Contact: Patrick Kiker
[email protected], (202) 507-4043
2014 was a good year for energy efficiency. The outlook for 2015 is uncertain, but we’re guardedly optimistic.
By Steven Nadel, Executive Director
The New Year is usually a good time to take stock of the year just ended, and to look forward to the year ahead. Regarding energy efficiency,
2014 was generally a good year. Energy-saving technologies and practices continued to advance. For example, in 2014 LED lighting became a mainstream source of light. The Design Lights Consortium now lists more than 70,000
LED lighting products. And a recent DOE
report estimates that by 2020, LED lighting will account for about 48% of product sales.
Similarly, intelligent
efficiency-using sensors, controls, software and “big data” to identify sources of energy waste in real time and enable quick solutions-is poised for rapid growth with multiple firms now offering intelligent efficiency services in the commercial sector,
and new smart thermostat products from Honeywell and others as direct competition to Nest. Many of these developments were presented at ACEEE’s November Intelligent
Efficiency Conference.
There were also policy advances, including the completion of multiple new federal energy efficiency standards that collectively will save
consumers more than $50 billion, the inclusion of energy efficiency in the proposed standard regulating greenhouse gases from
existing power plants, and the president’s order to set new fuel
efficiency standards for large trucks .
States and cities also generally made progress on energy efficiency. For example, utility investments in and savings from energy efficiency
programs continue
to increase. On the other hand, there were rollbacks of efficiency efforts in Florida,Indiana,
and Ohio,
and the U.S. Congress could not enact even modest
energy efficiency legislation.
For 2015, the outlook is uncertain, but we’re guardedly optimistic. Energy saving technologies and practices will continue to advance. For
example, we see the coming year as a pivotal one for zero-net-energy
buildings. Several states will be considering improvements to their energy efficiency policies, including Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania…
To continue reading the blog post, visit: http://aceee.org/blog/2015/01/2014-was-good-year-energy-efficiency-
About ACEEE: The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs,
technologies, investments, and behaviors. For information about ACEEE and its programs, publications, and conferences, visit aceee.org.
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