Supplying Energy through Greater Efficiency

Supplying Energy Through Greater Efficiency: The Potential for Conservation in California's Residential Sector by Alan Meier, Janice Wright, and A. H. Rosenfeld reframes energy conservation as a resource equal in significance to oil, gas, or solar power. Written against the backdrop of the ongoing energy crisis, the study treats conserved energy not as deprivation but as a reserve that can be "extracted" through efficiency investments. By developing a rigorous method for estimating these reserves—supply curves of conserved energy—the authors establish a framework that places conservation on par with conventional energy resources. They demonstrate that inefficiencies embedded in refrigerators, homes, heating systems, and lighting represent vast, untapped energy reserves dispersed throughout the residential landscape.

Focusing specifically on California’s residential sector, the authors marshal detailed data on electricity and natural gas use in existing housing to quantify the potential savings. Their results reveal that by investing at costs no greater than current average energy prices, consumption of electricity could be reduced by 33 percent and natural gas by 34 percent, all without sacrificing comfort or amenities. In this way, the book underscores conservation as not only a pragmatic but also a profitable energy strategy. Supplying Energy Through Greater Efficiency offers policymakers, researchers, and energy planners a pioneering model for evaluating conservation as a cornerstone of long-term energy security.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1983.