contributed by Graham Seiner
In 1989, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute coined the term "negawatts" for conserved energy - defining a negawatt as one megawatt of electricity conserved for one hour.
By most accounts, we waste a third or more of the electricity we produce, making conserved energy potentially one of our most abundant and clean energy resources.
According to Glenn Croston, writing at RenewaleEnergyWorld.com, producing negawatts by investing in energy efficiency can free up significant generating capacity.
In fact, energy efficiency certificates have been implemented in Europe and in three US states - Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Like carbon trading, the goal is to develop a market for the trading of certificates, to encourage conservation.
in Connecticut, where the trading program began in 2007, the state requires utilities to ramp up the contribution of efficiency projects to 4% of their energy portfolio over a period of three years. a national market for negawatts in the US may eventually result.
There are a variety of ways in which energy-efficiency certificates can be used to encourage energy efficiency. One use being advanced by IBM is to bundle energy-efficiency certificates with sales of energy-efficient mainframes. The customer can then resell the certificates or hold on to them to demonstrate their contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through increased energy efficiency.
Some variation on this theme should be considered by the recently appointed Energy Policy Committee to encourage energy conservation in the Bahamas, even if only as a promotional exercise.
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