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jevons paradox

Energy Efficiency: An Uphill Battle on A Slippery Slope

October 7, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 401 views
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With apologies for the dueling cliches in today's title, that image conveys the conflicting messages I received from a pair of events on the topic of energy efficiency this week. Yesterday I watched a panel discussion on energy efficiency finance, part of the valuable First Wednesday series of seminars from Resources for the Future in D.... [read more]

The Efficiency Illusion

December 21, 2010 by Breakthrough Institute
with 1,188 views
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By Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, and Jesse Jenkins If there's one thing everyone knows for certain, it's that energy efficiency reduces energy consumption. President Obama, Steven Chu, Fortune 500 chieftains, Silicon Valley VCs, the U.N. and McKinsey all say it. This view has become so common-sensical to be nearly tautological.... [read more]

The long and the short of energy efficiency

December 21, 2010 by Gernot Wagner
with 901 views
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David Owen asks a provocative question in the current New Yorker: If our machines use less energy, will we just use them more? He more or less says yes. The real answer comes in two parts. For now—over days, weeks, months, and even years—energy efficiency will decrease energy use and emissions. Screw a compact fluorescent light... [read more]

The other side of energy efficiency

September 17, 2010 by David Hone
with 836 views
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There are two sides to the energy efficiency debate and we tend to only talk about the one which results in lower energy demand as part of an emissions reduction strategy. The other side is quite the opposite. It even has a name, the Jevons paradox. It is the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource. In 1865, the English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that technological improvements that increased the efficiency of coal use led to the increased consumption of coal in a wide range of industries. He argued that, contrary to common intuition, technological improvements could not be relied upon to reduce fuel consumption. [read more]

When to worry about the Jevons Paradox

September 7, 2010 by Michael Giberson
with 726 views
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Tom Konrad explains, “When it Makes Sense to Worry About Jevons Paradox, and When it Doesn’t.” Konrad highlights the critical point – whether demand for the good in question is elastic or inelastic – and suggests that the demand for electric power is relatively inelastic and therefore the demand for lighting is inelastic, hence... [read more]

The Jevons Paradox: Time to Send it The Way of the Dodo?

June 23, 2010 by Peter Troast
with 1,850 views
11

The Jevons Paradox has been the elephant in energy efficiency's room since energy efficiency was in diapers. It casts a gloomy shadow over the industry, raises doubts about the sanctity of our mission, and the fact that it exists at all is, frankly, kind of a drag. But here's the thing: energy efficiency is all grown up now, and Jevons... [read more]