Question

What is energy efficiency? Explain why we can think of energy efficiency as an energy resource. What percentage of the energy used in the United States is unnecessarily wasted? List four widely used energy-wasting technolo- gies. What are the major advantages of reducing energy waste? List three reasons why this source of energy has been neglected.

Answer 1

Answer:

Energy efficiency is a determination of the amount of work one can obtain from each energy unit used. Improving energy efficiency signifies the usage of less energy to offer a similar amount of work in the forms of heat, light, transportation, and other benefits. This constitutes a largely untapped source of energy, which is clean, abundant, easily available, and cheap.  

About 84 percent of all the commercial energy utilized in the United States does not generate useful work. Approximately 41 percent of this energy generally ends up as low-quality waste heat in the environment due to deprivation of energy eminence levied by the 2nd law of thermodynamics. The remaining 43 percent is wasted needlessly, majorly because of the inefficacy of industrial motors, light bulbs, power plants, and motor vehicles.  

The four broadly used devices that waste energy are incandescent light bulb, a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine, a coal-fired power plant, and a nuclear power plant. The prime advantages of reducing energy wastes are:

1. Reduces oil imports and betters energy security.  

2. Prolongs supplies of fossil fuels.  

3. Reduced pollution and environment degradation.  

4. Very high energy yield and low cost.  

The three prime reasons that energy efficiency has been neglected are:  

1. Energy stays artificially cheap (subsidies for fossil fuel and mining companies).  

2. Few large and long-enduring incentives for energy efficiency.  

3. Prices do not comprise cost of health and environmental influences.