Negawatts

According to a Wikipedia article, this was term first coined by Amory Lovins. I know, it sounds a bit weird, but the concept is actually fairly straightforward, and is covered in decent depth by the aforementioned article, and in more depth by the links within it. After reading up on Mr. Lovins, my only surprise is that more people don't know who he is. He is simply brilliant, and his ideas are both sensible and easily practical. The gist of the "negawatt" concept is creating a market for increased energy efficiency, essentially decreasing our power generation needs by achieving the same or even better results by using less energy. For a personal example, we recently replaced a 40-watt incandescent bulb with a 9-watt screw-in fluorescent bulb. This light is on all the time so that people can actually see when they're walking through the kitchen. Assuming 10 cents per kWh, that one bulb will save right around $30 in energy costs and about 272 kWh of energy over the course of the next year. What's more, that bulb puts out much better light than the bulb it replaced. Multiply that by a household, or a workplace, or a town or city, and you get the picture. Sometimes, it's just as simple as turning off lights in rooms you're not in, and using natural lighting when possible. Other times, it's keeping the air conditioning at a higher setting and using fans. It's mostly simple, it makes sense, and it can have a huge impact. Also, if applied widely enough, it can prevent the need for additional power plants. Living simply doesn't always mean living uncomfortably, or doing without conveniences to which we have become accustomed. Sometimes, it means just being a little more thoughtful about the way we go about things.

I have added several links to the sidebar. I strongly encourage visiting all of them. I especially recommend visiting Journey to Forever. I have found it an invaluable resource on biofuel production, and I'm sure you'll find the same. I'm not sure if the links will open in a new window or not because I didn't do the code. Instead, I let Blogger do all the work just because I'm feeling a bit lazy today. :)