Energy service analysis

Description

This technical report uses energy service analysis (ESA) to identify and evaluate new means to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Most analyses in this area focus on making existing processes more efficient. This report uses ESA to examine possibilities for instead changing how a service is delivered. The report introduces ESA, explains how it differs from conventional approaches and how this type of analysis can be conducted, uses an ESA framework to analyze how changes in the provision of two services — news delivery and personal mobility — might result in reductions in GHG emissions, suggests other areas in which ESA could be applied, and ends with some thoughts on using ESA more broadly. The authors find that technical improvements in any specific sector may not generate per capita reductions in energy use or GHG emissions as large as reductions possible through changing the means by which people achieve the ends currently provided in those sectors (e.g., news, social interaction). However, reductions are constrained by how well the alternative (e.g., e-readers, vehicle sharing) substitutes for the existing means of providing the service.

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