Wasted energy: The numbers will astound you
October 2, 2015
By William Pentland A whopping 54 percent of the total energy used to generate electricity in the United Kingdom is wasted before it even gets to homes and businesses, according to a report released on Thursday.
The total economic value of the energy wasted by Britain's electric grid is estimated to be about $14 billion (£9.5) billion annually. To put this in perspective, this is equivalent to more than half the average home's annual electricity bill in the UK. The environmental impact of the prodigious energy waste is arguably even more mind numbingly huge. The annual carbon emissions attributed to the energy wasted in the UK is equivalent to that created by every car in the UK. "If half of current centralized thermal generation was instead directly connected at the distribution level near demand, the avoided transmission losses would save energy users £135 million annually," said the report. The report, "Less Waste, More Growth: Boosting Energy Productivity," was sponsored by a coalition of 14 organizations led by the Association for Decentralized Energy and the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). The analysis identifies several opportunities where policymakers could facilitate reductions in energy waste cost effectively. "Reducing energy waste could contribute to productivity and growth in the UK economy," said Stephen Reeson, the head of energy policy at the FDF, in a press release. "It's vital that as part of the Government's review of the energy and climate change policy landscape they take heed of the messages in this report and ensure that any revision to the energy tax regime continues to support and incentivize manufactures to further deliver energy productivity improvements." If anything, the amount of energy wasted by the electric power system in the United States is even more staggering than the amount of energy wasted in the UK. Indeed, more energy is wasted in the US annually than the total amount of energy consumed in Japan, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For more: © 2015 FierceMarkets, a division of Questex, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/wasted-energy-numbers-will-astound-you/2015-10-02 |