permaculture

[Saor Stetler <sstetler@earthlink.net>]

SPIEGEL ONLINE - April 11, 2007, 05:07 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,476231,00.html


       SAVING THE WORLD, ONE LIGHT BULB AT A TIME


     Why Conservation Is the World's Best Energy Source

By Alexander Jung

Warnings of a coming climate catastrophe caused by greenhouse gas 
emissions are growing louder. But the pressure for economic growth 
around the globe is pushing gas and oil prices higher. The solution 
seems deceptively simple: conserve energy by using it more efficiently. 
So why aren't more people doing exactly that?

A satellite image of Europe at night: Residents of Western Europe's 
industrial nations waste enormous amunts of electricity, petrol, heating 
oil and gas. Without any noticeable decrease in quality of life, 
consumers could reduce their energy consumption by one-fifth.
AP/ NASA

A satellite image of Europe at night: Residents of Western Europe's 
industrial nations waste enormous amunts of electricity, petrol, heating 
oil and gas. Without any noticeable decrease in quality of life, 
consumers could reduce their energy consumption by one-fifth.

Peter Lentz always starts his hunt for wastefulness in the cellar. 
That's where the energy expert hits pay dirt on this particular morning 
too: He feels it as soon as he walks into the boiler room. It's too warm 
down here.

The thermometer shows 29 degrees Celsius (84.2 degrees Fahrenheit). The 
apartment building has two boilers supplying its heat. Both are running 
even though it's above freezing outside. "One would be more than 
enough," says Lentz. But what really stuns the energy specialist is the 
fact that each unit has a water capacity of 2,500 liters (660.4 
gallons), which he considers "absolute nonsense."


       FROM THE MAGAZINE

Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your 
publication. <http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,460322,00.html>
Lentz directs WGB Wärme GmbH, a Berlin-based company with a unique 
business model. His firm turns a profit by saving energy for its 
clients. WGB installs modern heating systems that can be controlled from 
its service center. Clients agree to buy oil or gas from the firm for a 
set period of time, say ten years, but do not pay a cent for the 
equipment. Instead, WGB finances the new heating systems from the energy 
savings it provides.

The deal pays off for both client and contractor -- and helps the 
environment at the same time. Energy savings average between 15 and 20 
percent, but are often even more. The clever concept is becoming quite 
popular in Germany; there are already some 500 energy contractors like 
WGB providing services to real estate companies, supermarkets and even 
prisons. And their market share is growing by about 15 percent each year.

The conservation industry

Conserving energy is rapidly becoming a growth sector. The new industry 
is creating thousands of jobs in areas where German firms are already 
leaders. Who would have thought 20 years ago that modern technology for 
wind and solar energy would eventually become an export hit? Or that 
shares in these companies would be traded on the stock market?

Graphic: Energy Consumption and Savings Goal
DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: Energy Consumption and Savings Goal

With humanity wasting massive amounts of oil, gas and coal to heat 
buildings, power industry and fuel vehicles, the potential for 
conservation efforts is vast. Fossil fuel consumption has increased by 
two-thirds within a generation. Rapidly growing economies in Asia and 
countries formerly part of the Soviet Union have increased the global 
competition for resources 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,k-6954,00.html>. The world 
seems to have insatiable appetite for energy these days.

And the future of new economic powerhouses like China and India 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,433401,00.html> 
depends on a steadily growing global energy supply. But where modern 
technology falls by the wayside in their rapid development, massive 
quantities of natural resources are wastefully being burned and pumped 
into the atmosphere. That makes no sense economically, and it's 
environmentally insane.

Climate change reports released by the United Nations last week and in 
February came to rather worrisome conclusions about the state of 
worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming. That in part has 
encouraged leaders of all political persuasions and nationalities to 
declare themselves ready to make environmental protection a priority. 
The alarming forecasts even led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to 
announce: "It's five minutes till midnight." But can anything actually 
be done to turn back the clock?

Asia ascendent

Future superpower China is already the world's second biggest consumer 
of oil after the United States, even though the Asian giant is hardly 
motorized. Only 19 out of 1,000 Chinese drive a car, whereas in America 
some 780 people out of 1,000 do. And China is second only to the United 
States when it comes to belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Graphic: International comparison of energy efficiency
DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: International comparison of energy efficiency

Hundreds of millions of people want to copy Western standards of living 
and Western consumer habits -- hurtling their countries toward 
environmental catastrophes in the process. At the same time citizens of 
the industrialized world are beginning to fret over the question of how 
much more the planet can withstand. How can mankind's monstrous appetite 
for energy be sated in both Asia and in the West?

In the past, it was enough to simply drill for new oil and gas fields, 
burn larger amounts of coal and build more nuclear power plants. But 
these days even enthusiastic growth optimists are pointing out the 
limits of such a strategy: It's too expensive, too dangerous, and -- 
above all -- too dirty.

One reliable source of energy is not even close to being depleted: 
Simply saving it may be the safest and cleanest option mankind has. It 
also happens to make a tidy profit.

Without much effort, the almost 500 million citizens of the European 
Union could reduce their energy use by one-fifth, studies have found. 
That would add up to savings of roughly EUR60 billion ($79 billion) per 
year. Such huge sums become less abstract when broken down to household 
level: An average family could save from EUR200 to EUR1,000 by using 
their energy more efficiently.

Graphic: Electricity Savings
DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: Electricity Savings

In this case, less could certainly be more. And it's not about silly 
suggestions such as using your coffee filter three times. Saving doesn't 
have to mean sacrificing quality of life. An energy-saving compact 
flourescent light bulb, for example, uses only one-fifth of the energy 
required by a conventional incandescent bulb and lasts ten times longer. 
Buying them will "pay off more than most investments," says Hans 
Weinreuther from a consumer advocacy association in the German state of 
Rhineland-Palatinate.

If Europeans switched to innovative lighting technology, they could save 
EUR4.3 billion each year which in turn could be used for more important 
things. But why are consumers so reluctant to take that path?

Leaky pipes and poor insulation

The current debate about energy often seems to be filled with paradoxes. 
Many Germans are afraid of being too dependent on Russian oil and 
natural gas, which leads some in this traditionally anti-nuclear nation 
to reassess their attitudes toward atomic energy 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,460011,00.html>. 
Others are even mention the possibility of increasing domestic coal 
production. At the same time, the German environmental group BUND has 
criticized that the most important source of energy "has hardly been 
tapped at all."

End consumers use only about a third of all the energy produced 
worldwide. The rest is wasted -- it disappears into the air or sea 
through leaky pipes and poor insulation. Peter Hennicke, president of 
the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, compares 
current energy systems with a bathtub that doesn't have a plug in the 
drain -- it constantly needs more water. "It's an intellectual 
provocation for any creative engineer or planner," Hennicke says.

Even supposedly fine-tuned products such as automobiles are horrendously 
inefficient. Around 70 to 80 percent of the power created by the motor 
does not end up being used for the car's main purpose: moving forward. 
Instead the energy heats up the radiator fluid or is blown out the 
muffler as hot air. Naturally the heat could be used for propulsion; 
that's not a new idea. But the technological hurdles to produce such 
steam-powered automobiles have proven too great -- and gasoline has 
simply been too affordable to make the effort worthwhile.

Saving energy to secure world supplies

How people use energy -- and the products that require it -- is often a 
conflicted affair. But every liter of oil, every cubic meter of gas, 
every kilowatt-hour of power conserved not only saves money and the 
environment. It also helps secure the world's energy supplies.

Slowly this realization is spreading. US President George W. Bush 
recently called on Americans to use less oil since their country's 
consumption of petroleum products made the United States "vulnerable to 
enemy regimes and terrorists." For the first time, the former Texas 
oilman admitted that some sort of climate change was underway and that 
it presented "a serious challenge."

But the new tune coming from Washington is a rather familiar one in 
Brussels. The European Commission has already come up with countless 
action plans, presented studies and pushed ahead with efficiency 
campaigns. The goal is for the 27 EU members to use at least one percent 
less energy each year. And the Commission demonstrated just how serious 
it is about achieving that aim by attempting to tighten emissions 
standards for the automobile industry.

Of course, the EU commissioner responsible for environmental issues, 
Stavros Dimas, watered down his original demands. It's not just the 
carmakers being held responsible -- gasoline producers are supposed to 
deliver cleaner- burning and ecologically friendly biofuels 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,426736,00.html>. And 
one of the most important questions remains: Do the new limits apply to 
the entire automobile industry? Will the same standards be set for Fiat 
and Porsche? But the EU will no longer be satisfied with lazy promises 
made by the industry to improve its record. The argument about not 
wanting to endanger thousands of jobs was specious to begin with. For 
only those carmakers developing new models -- which will most certainly 
be cars that use less fuel -- will survive the coming decades, and 
secure jobs in the process.

Pressure to change

There's no doubt that something is underway. The growing number of 
forecasts predicting dramatic changes to the planet's climate is 
altering the perceptions of political leaders, corporate managers and 
even average consumers. It was taken seriously once consumers saw how 
rising prices for gasoline, heating oil, natural gas and electricity 
were emptying their pocketbooks. The more financial pressure is applied, 
apparently, the more people are willing to save.

Seventy to 80 percent of the power generated by a car's motor is wasted.
DPA

Seventy to 80 percent of the power generated by a car's motor is wasted.

Energy consultants in Germany are booked out for weeks at a time. 
Consumer advocacy agencies that provide energy saving tips are busier 
than ever. New furnaces sell like hotcakes and heating experts can 
barely install them fast enough. Wood has been rediscovered as a heating 
source, and remains more affordable than gas despite rising demand for it.

Heating with pellets made from pressed wood scraps is even more 
affordable. The number of heating units using them in Germany has grown 
to 70,000 from only 40,000 the year before. Pellets burn evenly, giving 
them an extremely high energy conversion efficiency of over 90 percent.

Strong demand for energy-efficient items is causing prices to soar. 
Insulating materials like rock wool, polystyrene, cork or coco fiber 
panels cost as much as ten percent more than they did last year. Despite 
the inflated prices, some are still sold out for months at a time, 
waking memories of a bygone era of energy shocks and a drive to be more 
efficient.

Saving energy was popular in the 1970s, as surging oil prices changed 
people's daily lives. In Germany in 1979, a liter of gasoline cost more 
than one deutsche mark for the first time ever. The German motor club 
ADAC distributed millions of stickers with the slogan: "I'm an energy 
saver." American physicist Amory Lovins coined the term "negawatts" for 
unused megawatts to show that saving energy could have an economic 
impact. His credo explained that economic growth and a reduction of 
energy use didn't have to be mutually exclusive.

Both the public and industry made an effort and, sure enough, energy 
costs sank. Energy intensity -- the relationship between energy use and 
economic output -- has since dropped by 40 percent. However, as oil 
prices eventually fell, so too did the interest in saving energy. It's a 
lot like people with bad backs -- as soon as the pain is gone, they stop 
doing their therapeutic exercises.

A generation later, the spirit of saving has returned. And this time it 
may have more lasting effects, since it has less to do with doing good 
and more to do with economic sense. Even Germany's ruling coalition of 
the conservative Christian Democrats and center-left Social Democrats -- 
often paralyzed by its efforts to reach a consensus -- is getting in on 
the act.

Little public awareness of energy consumption

The government has already established its own goals for 2020. Germany 
should cut its electricity consumption by 8 percent compared to 2003 
levels, lower heating for buildings by 19 percent and decrease energy 
consumption for transportation by 5 percent. That, at least, is what 
Germany's Dena energy agency is aiming for, but the path getting there 
won't be easy.

The difficulties start with the images associated with saving energy -- 
which never sounds sexy or exciting. Instead it conjures up ideas of 
getting by with less or freezing. "Who really likes to save?" asks 
Dena's director Stephan Kohler. "I don't."

Kohler prefers to talk about efficiency. Of course, that's his job: Dena 
was set up by Germany's last center-left government under Gerhard 
Schröder's Social Democrats and the Green Party to spread the gospel of 
energy conservation across the land. And that's one of the toughest 
hurdles to clear -- far too many people just don't know much about the 
energy they use.

Compact fluorescent light bulb require only one-fifth the energy of a 
standard light bulb.
REUTERS

Compact fluorescent light bulb require only one-fifth the energy of a 
standard light bulb.

Who knows how much their freezer costs them each month? Who is aware 
that a flight from Europe to America spews some 4,000 kilograms of 
carbon dioxide into the stratosphere? Who realizes that a washing 
machine only uses half as much electricity when laundry is washed at 40 
degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) instead of 60 degrees? The 
average customer of utility companies in Germany like RWE, Vattenfall, 
Ruhrgas or who tanks up at Shell or BP is totally clueless -- and 
irrational to boot.

"People drive across town to buy meat for 99 cents," a bemused Kohler 
says while lamenting how much those same people ignore the potential 
gains from simply being a little more conscious about how they use 
energy. The widespread attitude assuming that electricity is cheap and 
always available from a wall socket annoys the Dena boss: "We have to 
get away from that."

Very few already have managed to do so. Barbara Schweer and Martin Hoyer 
are exceptions. They moved with their daughter to a housing development 
in the southwestern German city of Freiburg consisting of 47 
energy-efficient structures.

Their penthouse is heated entirely from a nearby wood-fired power plant. 
"We had heating costs of only EUR300," says Schweer, referring to the 
paltry annual bill for the 167 square-meter (1,800 square-foot) 
apartment. The secret of such savings is the house's extensive 
insulation. Even on cold days in February, the thermostat is often kept 
at a low temperature. The south-facing glass side of the structure 
captures the winter sun, but during the summer the sun is high enough in 
the sky so that the rooms don't heat up.

The building, a so-called positive energy house, actually produces more 
energy than its residents need -- it's essentially a tiny power plant. 
The solar panels on the roof produced almost 9,000 kilowatt-hours of 
electricity in the first year. Subtract the structure's own power usage 
along with heating costs and there's still a surplus of around 2,000 
kilowatt-hours left over. The monthly expenditures of EUR100 for 
electricity and heat are more than offset by the EUR400 in revenue the 
solar panels bring in.

The key point is that the family can actually make money with its 
energy-efficient way of living. And it doesn't require spending winter 
evenings reading by candlelight or taking only one warm shower a week. 
But such homes remain the exception in both Europe and America. Most of 
the 17 million houses and apartment buildings in Germany spend some 30 
percent of their total energy use just heating rooms and water. This 
also happens to be where most of the savings potential lies.

A report by the energy services firm Techem found that a regular heating 
unit needs on average 15.7 liters of heating oil per square meter. 
Low-energy houses require only 7 liters. Some models, such as the one 
where the Hoyer-Schweer family lives, make do with even less. And such 
structures no longer look like oversized burlap bags.

Making old buildings fit for the future

The biggest energy-wasting culprits are older buildings. They burn 
around 50 liters of heating oil per square meter. Unfortunately they 
also make up the majority of the structures in Germany. Three quarters 
of all houses and apartments were built before 1977, when strict 
insulation regulations went into effect. That's more than 12 million 
structures in Germany alone.

"There's a backup in renovating old buildings energy-wise," says Andreas 
Troge, head of Germany's Environmental Protection Agency. And that 
slowdown will be hard to change -- only one percent of all real estate 
is renovated each year.

When homeowners call upon carpenters, electricians or plumbers, it's 
usually for cosmetic repairs. Perhaps the bath will be spruced up, the 
stairway painted or the kitchen modernized. But unspectacular 
renovations in the cellar or in the attic are usually the ones that 
never get done. That's not where guests will be looking.

Graphic: Heat Savings
DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: Heat Savings

Only when the heating bill shows up do some people decide to take 
action. Often they get advice from someone like Peter Hirt, an energy 
consultant for the consumer protection association in the northern 
German city Kiel. The trained engineer then searches for those spots 
where a house leaks heat. It could be poorly insulated cellar ceilings, 
thin frames for built-in blinds or even boilers placed in non-insulated 
niches in foundation walls - a typical building practice in the 1960s. 
"They make nice red spots on the infrared camera," says Hirt.

Every blot of color on his monitor represents money lost. Homeowners 
could save up to two-thirds of their heating costs if they took 
advantage of all the technology available. The installation of a 
condensing boiler -- which makes use of its own exhaust for heat -- 
could be combined with solar panels or a heat pump, as well as a 
properly insulated roof, walls and windows.

Policies spur home improvements

Beginning in 2008, the European Union will require the issuance of 
energy certificates for homes and apartments that rate a building's 
energy efficiency. Though home and flat owners are excluded from the 
certificate rule, they will be required to obtain one if they sell or 
rent out the property. Like so many regulations that come out of 
Brussels, the final energy certificates and requirements are a 
watered-down compromise. Indeed, in some instances, the certificate will 
include little more information than the previous year's heat and 
electric bill. But those dealing in real estate expect the energy 
certificate to change the industry, since the added transparency could 
end up having consequences for the market value of homes and apartments, 
as well as the rents landlords charge.

Requirements like the energy certificate could help consumers do the 
right thing. But tax credits and other incentives provided by the 
government also help.

Germany's KfW development bank has around EUR5.6 billion to support 
energy renovations through 2009. That's four times as much as in 
previous years. The state-backed financial institution offers 
low-interest loans of up to EUR50,000 ($66,800) per apartment, as well 
as grants topping out at EUR8,750. The program ends up working like 
government aid to prime the economy -- helping in particular smaller, 
regional architects, carpenters, and heating installers. "For every 
billion euros invested in the renovation of buildings for energy 
reasons, 25,000 jobs in the construction sector are created or secured," 
the latest environmental report of German federal government claims.

However, the involuntary heating of their surroundings isn't the only 
way homeowners waste energy. They also use far more power than necessary 
for their household electronic devices -- be it their refrigerator, 
freezer, computer, stove or lamps. With very little effort each 
household could cut their electricity usage by one-third.

The first thing to do is to install switchable outlets that ensure that 
electronics are completely cut off from the power network -- including 
those models that no longer come with an "off" button. Normal household 
devices using a so-called "stand-by" function can use more than EUR90 in 
electricity each year. A computer with a monitor and printer can alone 
eat up EUR24. Germany could shut down two large power plants if the 
country's consumers did without such unnecessary electronic idling.

It's also underestimated just how much power the circulation pumps of a 
home's heating system use. New models that regulate warm water according 
to time and temperature use only a fraction of the energy the older ones 
do, which lowers costs considerably. Germany could in theory switch off 
another power plant if most of the heat pumps in the country's single- 
and two-family homes were replaced. That's the problem, though: 60 
percent of the public isn't even aware that their oil or gas heat uses 
electricity.

Light savings

The potential savings from lighting are especially impressive. Regular 
incandescent light bulbs have used the same primitive operating 
principle for the past century: a coiled wire, usually tungsten, glows 
under electricity in a glass vacuum. This method is much like a joke 
without a punch line: Only five percent of the electricity is actually 
converted into light. The rest is wasted in heat. Despite such horrible 
inefficiency, shops in Europe continue to sell some 2 billion of these 
energy-wasting light bulbs each year.

Lighting is by far the biggest item on the power bills for office 
buildings. Streetlights also devour huge amounts of electricity. Often 
they are outdated models from the 1960s still lighting city streets or 
paths. If Europe's civic planners switched to modern lighting they could 
save between EUR600 million to EUR700 million each year.

A research lab in the western German city of Aachen offers a view of 
what the future of lighting holds. Here, some of the 260 physicists, 
computer experts and engineers working for the Dutch electronics giant 
Philips research new lighting technologies. One of the most promising is 
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED), which are thin yet wide lighting 
glass tiles that are coated with a layer of polymers. They can be 
integrated into walls or furniture, can change color and are especially 
energy efficient.

"They create completely new possibilities for applications," says an 
excitied Dietrich Bertram, the director of Philips OLED research unit. 
His vision is that in a few years such new lighting will hopefully 
replace classic neon tubes. Traditional LEDs are already known to last 
much longer than even compact flourescent light bulbs and are more 
robust and less sensitive to vibrations. They also react extremely 
quickly, which is why the auto industry is using them more and more for 
brake lights.

Such examples show the immense growth opportunities that greener 
technologies offer. The current global market volume for 
efficiency-related technology is estimated by the German Environment 
Ministry to total EUR400 billion and it is expected to grow to EUR1 
trillion by 2030. And German companies are well positioned to get a big 
chunk of that business.

Generous subsidies from the last German government of Social Democrats 
and Greens have given German firms a good head start in developing 
renewable energy technologies such as hydro, photovoltaic and wind 
power. Both laws and subsidies for pilot programs have also helped 
German innovators become internationally known. Wind power is on the 
verge of "conquering the world market," says Fritz Vahrenholt, head of 
Hamburg-based wind turbine builder Repower.

Prospects for exporting new high-tech innovations do indeed look 
promising. Around 19 percent of all environmentally friendly 
technologies currently come from Germany, Chancellor Merkel told the 
German parliament last November. "It could well become more," she said 
encouragingly.

A wind farm near Halle: Germany is the world's leading exporter of 
environmentally friendly technologies.
Getty Images

A wind farm near Halle: Germany is the world's leading exporter of 
environmentally friendly technologies.

China is showing particular interest in "Made in Germany" 
eco-technology. The leadership in Beijing knows expensive resources need 
to be used more efficiently if the world's largest country is to avoid 
an ecological disaster. According to the government's rather ambitious 
planning, the Chinese are to become four percent more energy efficient 
each year. That will take more than just windmills and solar panels -- 
products from more traditional sectors like regulatory technologies, 
material science and power plant construction will be necessary as well. 
All are areas where Germany industry is well represented.

German engineers are developing turbines that are more efficient. They 
are inventing tires that have a lower resistance while rolling. And they 
are coming up with magical materials that offer better insulation.

Burkhard Schwenker, CEO of the Munich-based Roland Berger international 
business consultancy, believes the German environmental technology 
sector is already on its way to becoming a "leading industry" and local 
manufacturers are "fantastically" well positioned to compete globally. 
The consultant is forecasting growth of eight percent annually in the 
sector, eventually increasing the number of jobs in the sector from 
170,000 today to around 700,000.

Extra costs that pay off

The technology is available, it's just not being used often enough. Both 
industry and service providers are still far too ignorant about the cost 
of energy, even though they otherwise seem extremely keen to reduce 
waste and trim expenses.

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, co-founder of the Wuppertal Institute and 
current dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and 
Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara, finds it 
puzzling that more firms aren't trying to squeeze more efficiency from 
their energy usage. "I don't know of any sector where it would be 
impossible to increase energy productivity fourfold," he says.

If companies, for example, installed more electric motors with modern 
regulating technologies, the German economy could save as much energy as 
that produced by three or four large power plants. But normally they 
decide to purchase what they're familiar with -- that is, the cheap 
models. They've apparently overlooked the fact that, over the long term, 
90 percent of the outlays for operating a power unit are made up of 
electricity costs. In other words: The extra expenditures upfront more 
than pay for themselves in the long term.

And that's the effect Freund Drehtechnik GmbH, a small western German 
company making rotating machinery components, is counting on. The firm 
recently invested EUR12,000 in a lighting system for its new assembly 
hall -- EUR4,000 more than traditional lighting would have cost. The 
company based in North Rhine-Westphalia installed energy-saving 
fluorescent lamps with special sensors that adjust automatically 
according to the ambient natural light. The extra costs will be 
amortized within three years.

But many businesses are adopting better energy efficiency at a molasses 
pace. For many executives it's still easier to complain publicly about 
energy prices than it is to search internally for ways to use new 
conservation technologies. At least part of the corporate world, 
however, has begun thinking differently -- either for image reasons, out 
of conviction or simply to trim costs.

   * The logistics company UPS is working on optimizing electronic
     navigation for its fleet of vehicles. The system is so advanced
     that it even suggests routes that avoid unnecessary left turns,
     which cost both time and fuel.

   * US retail giant Wal-Mart, known for its stinginess when it comes
     to costs, is outfitting stores with modern lighting and solar
     panels. The company hopes to cut energy usage by almost a third.

   * Germany's national rail operator Deutsche Bahn is training its
     engineers to drive locomotives in a more efficient fashion. Some
     now even let their trains roll up to 70 kilometers on routes
     without a noteworthy reduction in speed.

Other companies are making use of the energy contractor model in order 
to become more efficient and save costs. At Microsoft's headquarters in 
Germany near Munich, a contractor managed to squeeze out EUR100,000 in 
annual savings even though the building was only five years old. The 
service provider is a subsidiary of utility company Vattenfall, 
confirming that even the big energy companies are diving into the new 
business field.

Otherwise the industry that produces and sells energy is better known 
for wasting most of it. Utilities don't get nearly enough out of power 
plants as technically would be possible. They still use old 
lignite-fired plants that only reach levels of energy conversion 
efficiency near 30 percent. Any other industry with similarly low 
productivity would quickly be put out of business.

In Germany the big firms -- RWE, E.on, EnBW and Vattenfall -- have 
carved up the territory. They set the industry's agenda and they are 
betting on large power plants that require vast quantities of water for 
cooling and an expensive long-distance power grid requiring lots of 
maintenance.

Smaller plants that service end customers in urban centers are far more 
efficient. Such co-generation plants are usually fired by gas and are 
normally located close to the customers who use the power -- hospitals, 
schools or industrial facilities. They are also able to provide both 
electricity and warmth at the same time.

Of course, the big power companies have little interest in such 
decentralized structures. But the time to make that switchover has never 
been better. Over the next two decades, utility companies will have to 
replace half of their power producing capacity, providing a unique 
opportunity. This would be the best chance to switch over to modern gas- 
and steam-turbine power plants that convert some 60 percent of the 
energy used into electricity. Or co-generation plants that use heat 
produced while making power for heating. Such technologies increase 
energy conversion efficiency to near 85 percent.

In this regard, Germany is currently lagging behind international 
developments. The country produces only 11 percent of its power by 
co-generation plants and only a few German cities such as Flensburg and 
Schwäbisch Hall produce notable portions of their power this way. In the 
Netherlands it's almost 40 percent and in Denmark even 50 percent.

German utilities had once planned to double the number of co-generation 
plants by 2010, but that goal is likely to be missed. German Environment 
Minister Sigmar Gabriel has demanded that his cabinet colleague Economy 
Minister Micheal Glos no longer take the industry by its word when it 
pledges to meet voluntary targets. Instead, the government should 
establish clear guidelines for the energy sector.

Lessons from the automobile industry

There's one problem with voluntary commitments from captains of 
industry: Everyone welcomes them, but no one pushes them. And at the end 
of they day they're all just playing for time.

This lesson was learned already during the dispute over limits for auto 
emissions. In 1998, the German automobile industry promised to cut 
carbon dioxide emissions on average to 140 grams per kilometer by 2008. 
That's roughly the consumption of 5.9 liters of gasoline and 5.3 liters 
of Diesel per 100 kilometers (39.9 and 44.4 miles per gallon 
respectively). But Mercedes, Porsche, BMW and Co. are all still quite 
far from that target, even though it wouldn't require magic to reach it.

At the Aachen Institute for Automotive Engineering (IKA) scientists are 
attempting to modify a VW Golf TSI with 170 horsepower by this summer so 
it uses less than 5 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers (47 miles per 
gallon) instead of 7.2 liters. It hasn't taken much effort to get it 
down to 5.8 liters already. The scientists have changed the 
transmission, reduced the weight and minimized the wind resistance. 
Nothing particularly spectacular. "We want to take it even further," 
says engineer Markus Espig. But how can governments encourage such ambition?

A dilemma for the government

The failure of voluntary, industry-wide commitments calls into question 
how best to improve energy efficiency. Is it enough to offer financial 
incentives, such as billions in subsidies for renovating buildings, in 
order to alter behavior? Or should lawmakers instead force changes by 
legislating new regulations and guidelines?

Thorben Becker of the German environmental group BUND argues the German 
government could certainly do more. For example, it's hard to explain 
why consumers can easily compare energy use for refrigerators and 
freezers, but that there are no similiar labeling requirements for 
electric stoves and hot water heaters. Or why the state doesn't put more 
pressure on utilities to fit power plants with co-generation facilities. 
"We need clear legal requirements," says Becker.

Graphic: Speed Limit Survey
DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: Speed Limit Survey

The governments of other countries in some cases certainly do more. 
Japan has implemented a so-called "Top Runner" program, which sets the 
most efficient electronic device in a specific product class as the 
standard to be measured by for three to 12 years. All other competing 
products that fail to close the gap are labeled as energy wasters and 
face being banned from sale.

The Netherlands is trying a subtler approach. The country offers direct 
subsidies to consumers who buy products that are especially energy 
efficient. There's EUR20 to EUR30 credit for each square meter of 
thermal insulating glass and EUR100 for the purchase of an energy 
thrifty washing machine.

Under Denmark's Electricity Saving Trust, which became law in 1998, each 
customer must pay a levy of EUR0.008 cents on each kilowatt-hour used. 
That in turn finances Danish conservation projects including a campaign 
to switch from electric heating to district heating -- which often comes 
from co-generation plants.

Britain also has a non-profit fund known as the Energy Saving Trust to 
promote the use of sustainable energies and energy conservation.

The Wuppertal Institute has calculated what would be necessary to set up 
a similar fund in Germany: A levy of 0.06 cent per kilowatt-hour on oil 
or gas and 0.09 cent on electricity would add up to EUR1.5 billion 
annually that could be used to finance conservation efforts. The result 
would help consumers save 12 percent more energy by 2015, which adds up 
to EUR9 billion each year.

But Germany's top energy saver, Dena director Kohler, offers a different 
approach. Consumers, according to his philosophy, have to realize on 
their own how advantageous it is to use energy more efficiently.

That happens, for example, when someone buys a new refrigerator. 
Recently, the energy agency provided retailers with detailed information 
about household items so they could help their customers make more 
informed decisions about their purchases. One adjustable wheel shows 
just how much they can save each year by purchasing the device with the 
lowest power usage.

"In the end, that's the decisive message," says a confident Kohler.



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