Are We Measuring Energy Use All Wrong?

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2015

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We measure energy use with a commodity-based approach -- monitoring electrons, therms and gallons. But is there a better way to gauge the efficiency of the economy? Energy Economist Skip Laitner has been exploring a new method based on measuring "exergy," which shows that America's economy is only 14 percent efficient. And he says it's getting less efficient every year. In this week's show, we'll talk with Laitner about why measuring usable energy is better for understanding economic productivity. And we'll ask: how do we apply it to the real world? Later in the program, we'll discuss the state of the storage industry. And we'll look at why America's flagship clean coal project in Kemper, Mississippi is so delayed and over budget. This podcast is sponsored by ReneSola, a Tier 1 solar cell and module manufacturer with a decade of experience in the cleantech industry. The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussions between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Energy Gang is sponsored by Renna Sola, a top manufacturer and supplier of clean energy equipment, including solar modules, inverters, energy storage, and efficient lighting.
0:10.0	With 40 worldwide subsidiaries, the company offers one-stop shopping for all your equipment needs with next day delivery.
0:17.0	You can see the entire list of Rennesola's offerings available coast to coast at renna sola. US.
0:25.0	For the week of June 4th, 2015,
0:31.0	this is the Energy Gang from Green Tech Media.
0:34.0	I am your host Stephen Lacey, a senior editor with Green Tech Media in Washington DC.
0:47.0	Welcome to the show, glad to have you with us.
0:49.0	In this week's installment, how do we measure economy-wide energy efficiency?
0:53.0	We'll talk with an energy economist who's made it his mission to find out.
0:57.0	We'll also explore the value of IT-enabled intelligent efficiency.
1:01.0	Then we'll talk storage. The gang was at the Energy Storage Association's annual
1:05.8	conference last week and we've got some takeaways on where the industry is at. Finally,
1:09.9	we'll talk about some severe troubles for clean coal.
1:13.7	Catherine Hamilton and Jiggershaw are my co-host as usual.
1:17.8	Catherine's here in DC with me.
1:19.3	She's a partner at 38 North Solutions.
1:22.4	Catherine, I saw you last Friday afternoon in Dallas when you're about to go catch a plane and
1:27.9	have pizza night with your kids.
1:29.2	I trust you were on time and the pizza was enjoyable.
1:33.0	Absolutely awesome.
1:35.0	We always have pizza night Friday night so I did make it back from the flooded Dallas.
1:39.0	Yeah, it was crazy the night before I was worried that we weren't going to get out.
	...

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