EFFICIENCY STILL THE CHEAPEST NEW ENERGY

Counting all costs, researchers find that saving energy is still cheap

Jon Weiner, April 29, 2015 (PhysOrg)

“…[T]he most comprehensive study yet of the full cost of saving electricity by U.S. utility efficiency programs…[shows 4.6 cents per kwh is the average total cost of saving a kilowatt-hour in 20 states from 2009 to 2013 [with 3.3 cents per kWh in the residential sector and 5.5 cents per kWh in the commercial and industrial sector, according to The Total Cost of Saving Electricity Through Utility Customer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs: Estimates at the National, State, Sector and Program Level]…The total cost of efficiency is the full investment in an energy-saving action, paid by all parties—the program administrator and the customer taking the action…[It is the] utility's costs of administering the program and providing the incentive plus what the customer spends are the total cost…What it costs to save energy is especially important as states increasingly turn to efficiency programs to manage demands for electricity…Efficiency programs and participants have split the cost of saving electricity almost right down the middle—on average paying roughly 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour each…” click here for more

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