We have seen it many times over, energy efficiency is a key component to the energy transition, alongside with renewable energy sources. Energy sobriety / conservation is another often overlooked tool.
As I was reporting all the way back to 2011, after Fukushima, Japan had cut by 15 percent its power usage thanks to conservation measures between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays to prevent blackouts.
According to Climate Progress : ” Japan has managed to replace half its missing nuclear power capacity through energy efficiency and conservation measures that endure three years later. “
Yeap, that’s right, energy efficiency and sobriety measures helped Japan cut its energy consumption by around 15 percent in just a few years.
As always in this great country, the people have been doing impressive work. Climate Progress brings us more details :
A campaign called ‘setsuden’ (power saving) was established to generate support. It worked, and by allowing dressed-down outfits and rotating air-conditioning schedules, the country averted blackouts.
If you type Setsuden into Google, you find a great article from Japan Today, Summer of Setsuden. There one can learn that ” raising the temperature on your air-conditioning unit just one degree results in about 13% less energy consumption.”
There are many more tips in this article and I strongly recommend it to you if you want to trim down your energy consumption.
If you are into the typically kawaii (cute) stuff from Japan, I strongly recommend you to have a look at the various advertisements / posters that were created for the occasion. Here are a few ones :
More great stuff : http://setsuden.tumblr.com/
I just wish the European Union, China or the United States launched similar advertisement campaigns. One for the US could say something like : “ Uncle Sam wants YOU to save energy “