Treatment without diagnosis is risky, for human health or home energy performance.

For any tax-paying citizen, the term “audit” probably has more negative than positive connotations. That’s why companies and individuals who perform home energy audits often refer to their services as “energy assessments” or “energy evaluations.” If the “A” word stigma isn’t bad (more…)

The Alliance to Save Energy’s Commission on National Energy Policy included financing as one of the central recommendations in its recent report, “Energy 2030: Doubling U.S. Energy Productivity by 2030.” The commission consists of some of the key leaders in energy policy and business in the United States.

The commission’s plan would use financing programs (more…)

Frequent commenter and alternative fuels expert Ben Thorp responds to my piece on electric transportation the other day, noting:

Energy efficiency … may be the largest issue if saving fossil fuel or the global environment is a major concern. The US utility energy efficiency has been (more…)

During his State of the Union Address, President Obama set the goal for the entire US economy to become 50% more energy efficient in the next 20 years. This objective is being hailed as an ambitious but achievable target, one that was endorsed by the non-partisan Alliance commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy. (more…)

The energy efficiency industry received a nice boost this week during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Obama called for cutting energy use by half over the next 20 years.

Such attention comes at a significant point in the history of the energy efficiency movement. It appears (more…)

According to a brand new study carried out by consultancy Ecofys and commissioned by the WWF, the European Union can halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

We have seen time and again that the European Union has been a leader in the fight against climate change when it unveiled its now famous 20-20-20 by (more…)

Two office buildings in Norway are being retrofitted so they will generate more power than they use when the project is completed next year.

The three- and four-story buildings, in the town of Sandvika, near Oslo, will generate geothermal and solar energy on site, making the buildings “energy (more…)

Events unfolding in two US Northeast states – New York and Massachusetts – signal increased business opportunity for energy efficiency companies, green architects, lighting contractors, smart grid innovators and others in the business of saving energy.

First, the energy efficiency world should keep an eye (more…)

According to a new study carried out by the English Centre of Economics and Business, traffic congestion in the United Kingdom, Germany and France cost each year up to 18,327 billion euros (around $24 billion). (more…)

It’s easy for those of us who ‘talk’ energy every day to forget that we operate in a bubble. Outside the bubble the average household is at best vaguely aware of the enormous technology revolution about to change the way each of us uses electricity.

Two recent studies provide some insight into how little (more…)