by Andrew Grandahl
The Northwest United States is known for many things; lush temperate rainforest and an omnipresent Pacific mist, progressive politics, and birthing rock and roll legends, just to name a few. But over the last several decades, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana have been quietly leading the way on something else that is deeply important and impactful: energy efficiency.
Though energy efficiency (we’ll refer to it as EE) is often overlooked by many (including environmentalists), it remains a wildly under-tapped resource for meeting a growing electricity demand while simultaneously decreasing emissions. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t. If solar, wind, and energy storage are half of the battle to a sustainable electricity grid, EE is truly the other half.
Through comprehensive EE programs alone, the Pacific Northwest has been able to meet more than half of its growth in electricity demand since 1980. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Bonneville Power Administration, Energy Trust of Oregon, and multiple utility companies and energy organizations, have collaborated for years to meet the efficiency targets of the NWCouncil’s regional power plants. Kickstarted in 1980 with the passage of the Northwest Power Act, the region has continued to strive for new levels of efficiency on residential, commercial, and industrial levels; not a bad example of how impactful legislation can catalyze very real industry shifts. Remember: every kWh of electricty saved through energy efficiency measures is a kWh of electricity that doesn't need to be produced by new power plants.
What are the results of these measures? The PNW is emitting 23.5 million tons less CO2 per year than they would be without EE measures. That's an amount considerably larger than the annual emissions of the state of Hawaii, or roughly equivalent to pulling five million cars off of the road. As for customer savings? According to the NWCouncil, in 2015, ratepayers collectively saved around 4.06 billion dollars on their electricity bills. That’s around one-third of the Northwest’s total $12 billion of annual electric bills.
Meeting over half of the growth in electricity demand, reducing emissions, and saving electricity consumers billions of dollars every year; this is the very real power of energy efficiency. While replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs, sealing leaks in your home’s insulation, or updating to efficient appliances may not seem like a big deal, the cumulative results when millions of people take these actions is truly staggering, both environmentally, and economically.
As we’ve seen from the exemplary actions of these states, collaboration between governments, utilities companies, and homeowners, combined with smart policies, can drastically change our energy landscape. EE isn’t just a way to save energy; it is in and of itself a source of energy.
This definition was a key aspect of the Northwest Power Act almost 40 years ago, and has been continually emphasized by the NWCouncil and others throughout the years. Producing new energy infrastructure (regardless of whether or not that infrastructure is fossil fuels or renewables-based) is costly and resource-intensive. As the energy demands of the planet continue to increase, new electricity generation will keep coming online, ideally through renewable sources. But equally valuable in this equation is the efficient use of the electricity that’s already being generated.
Think about it this way: if you made a concerted effort to be sure to use all the food you bought before it expired, to not buy more food than you could eat, and to freeze food you knew you couldn’t get to before it went bad, you would save a significant amount of money, and a significanr amount of food. This could be looked at as a type of “food efficiency”. Energy efficiency works in exactly the same way. Every kWh saved is a kWh that doesn’t need to be produced and paid for down the line.
By working to shift the fundamental idea behind energy efficiency from saving energy to creating more energy, the Northwest has made significant progress towards a more sustainable world, while simultaneously saving massive amounts of money for consumers and governments. They have made energy efficiency a priority for meeting demand, above any other energy source, and for good reason; the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released a study in 2009 citing EE as the cheapest energy source by a long shot. Since then, EE prices have held steady, and pricing for new wind, solar, and gas still all come behind EE.
Though new, sustainable energy infrastructure will of course be needed with a future of growing energy demands, there is no reason to not accompany this additional infrastructure with aggressive EE efforts across the country and around the world. EE is cost effective, requires comparatively little effort, and it benefits both the economy and the environment. To the Pacific Northwest, we say thank you for your leadership, and look forward to sharing a sustainable, efficient energy future with you.