Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Fifteen: End-Use Efficiency: Most Resilience Per Dollar 247Straightforward application of proven and cost-effective technology canreduce the specific energy requirements of heavy trucks and buses by thirtyto forty percent and of railroads by about twenty-five percent. 48 New Japaneseship designs have cost-effectively saved about half the normal fuel requirements.Commercial aircraft (seven percent of U.S. transportation fuel use)have raised their fleet efficiency from seventeen and a half passenger miles pergallon in 1973 to twenty-five today. They will reach forty-five passenger milesper gallon once the new generation of aircraft has been fully introduced(Boeing 757 and 767, DC9-80, and advanced L-1011)—a forty-five percentimprovement in fuel efficiency. A full, 1982-model jet uses only as much fuelper passenger-mile as an average U.S. car carrying four people used in 1978. 49Even larger savings are available from new technologies for turbofan engines,special propeller and wing designs, active control technologies, and weightsavingmaterials; together these promise a saving of about seventy percentfrom the 1973 norm. High-speed (five hundred fifty mph) turbofans are to beflight-tested around 1986. 50 Lighter-than-air craft also show economic promise,51 especially for intercity freight hauling. At least one British dirigibledesign can deliver door-to-door.Industry Industry (including agriculture, which uses four percent of industrialenergy) uses thirty-seven percent of all U.S. primary energy. During themid-1970s, industry was responsible for most—probably about two-thirds—ofthe total energy savings in America. The ten most energy-intensive industriesduring 1972–79 decreased their energy consumption per unit of product by anaverage of more than fifteen percent. 52 This was accomplished almost entirelyusing measures which paid back within one or two years at prices which werewell below today’s.Process heat—the heat, generally at moderate to high temperatures, neededto transform industrial materials—accounts for about forty-three percent of allindustrial energy. During the 1970s, the efficiency of using process heatimproved by about four percent per year. But at least an additional third ofthe heat could be cost-effectively saved by using better thermal insulation,heat recovery, process controls, heat pumps, cogeneration, and better processes.53 Alumina smelters can save at least a third of their electrical input byadopting superior processes. Proper sizing, coupling, and controls would saveabout half of the electrical needs for industrial motors (which use more thana fourth of all industrial primary energy). 54 This one improvement, typicallypaying back in a few years, would more than displace every nuclear powerplant in the country. Alternatively, substituting hydraulic for electric drive canoften yield major savings. 55