Can a City Cut Its Energy Use by 2/3?

On the eve of the historic climate change summit in Copenhagen, the "climate express" rolled into the Danish capital from Brussels tonight - a green-striped train carrying environmentalists and journalists.

Zurich and other Swiss cities have what they call a 2,000-watt solution to climate change, as CBS news correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports

Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, has a radical goal: to reduce the amount of energy residents use by two-thirds and become a 2,000-watt society.

If you take all the energy being consumed on earth and divide by the number of people it works out to about 2,000 watts per person, every second of every day. That's roughly the energy it takes to keep 20, 100-watt light bulbs burning. But how many of us are using more than our share?

Top of the list are Americans who use 12,000 watts each. Europeans use about half that much - 6,000 watts on average. Africans and Bangladeshis use less than 700.

So can each member of a modern Swiss family really live on the same energy it takes to power 20 light bulbs?? Martina Blum, an environmental economist, decided to try in a custom-built house with features like a ventilation system that recycles all warmth including body heat.

Features like that are expensive - but Swiss banks offer lower mortgage rates for energy efficient homes. To conserve even more energy, Blum's family also eats locally produced food. Aand their hybrid car spend most of its time in the driveway.

So how close are they? Down to about 3,500 watts. Not quite 2,000 but a vast improvement with no loss of comfort.

"The 2,000-watt society is not what some people criticize. They say it's cold, it's uncomfortable, it's no fun" said Roland Stultz, director of the group 2,000 Watt Society. "This is not true."

Swiss cities are now investing serious public money in the 2,000 watt vision - making trains and trams easier and cheaper than cars, and encouraging people to cycle or walk. The effort is paying off

"In cities like Basel, Zurich, about 40 percent of households don't even own a car," Stultz said.

Anna Roschewitz and Beat Meier certainly don't, and they recently decided to renovate their 1960's home to a 2,000-watt standard.

"It's proven. It's proven technology," said Meier. "Maybe the combination here or the target we set is a little ambitious, but it's not really. We are not even pioneers anymore."

Maybe not pioneers - but the Swiss are trailblazers, showing the world a 2,000-watt future can look very bright.

[RobertHargraves]

When you see "2,000 Watts a Second" in a headline you know the writer is numerically challenged.

[physics2010]

Gee. Who knew I was so environmentally friendly with all of the computers, tvs, and dvrs running. I use approximately 2.083kwh with a 1500kwh bill during the high months. Oh...and with two people living here, that just dropped me down to 1.041kwh per person. Maybe if I add in gas for the car, electricity for pumping water, and electricity for the streets I drive and the stores I shop in I might get a bit closer.

[ggbeeno]

Wow you have to admit that is a pretty big cut!

RT
www.be-anonymous.bg.tc

[bubbadubba]

"But how many of us are using more than our share?"
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
There is only so much electricity to go around and when we use up all the electrons we will have none.
We were all born with ration genes for energy and we should not be pigs and use more than our share of the earth's electrical potential. Nuclear power and fuel will be all used up in 20 million years and what will we do then?
LOL
Two lightbulb limit.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
These people are making me laugh myself to death.

[porcine_aviator]

'There is only so much electricity to go around and when we use up all the electrons we will have none.'

Wow, you actually think electrons are beng consumed? Sorry to burst your bubble, but htere's a reason it's called an electrical CIRCUIT. Charge is neither created nor destroyed...

'We were all born with ration genes for energy and we should not be pigs and use more than our share of the earth's electrical potential.'

This sentence is so full of nonsense I don't even know where to begin. Ration genes? You honestly believe we have genes for rationing electric power? WAYYYY too much tv there bud.

"Nuclear power and fuel will be all used up in 20 million years and what will we do then?"

Actually all of the uranium will be mined out in about 50-60 years; the thorium might last another 200. Coal, the fossil fuel in greatest abundance, will be mined out in about 200-250 years. All that said, we have more than enough wind, tidal, hydro, and geothermal power resources to continue an advanced society essentially forever. We just don't put it to full use because humans haven't yet understood the price of global warming. I'd say in 10 years, once the glacial meltoff in Greenland really kicks into high gear, we'll start seeing some folks in Western Europe begin making some good pricing models...

[jchenn]

In a universe that abounds with energy, the idea that we all need to choke down our consumption to a trickle is absurd. What we need to do is advance the science.

[irongate60]

The following excerpt was taking from a book called; The First Global Revolution, written in 1991 before the global warming hysteria...."In searching for a new enemy to unit us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would all fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention. The real enemy then becomes humanity itself"......The threat of global warming was a calculated idea created to control the populous that's been twenty years in the making and the media is not only in on it, but also the main cheerleader.

[sjc_1]

We use 6 times that amount, all those 600 watt plasma big screens times 10 million homes adds up. We can be more energy efficient and still enjoy a high standard of living but we don't. Somewhere some group convinced everyone that energy usage means prosperity. Eventually energy waste can lead to just the opposite.

[brianbwb-2009]

Kill all billboards, Las Vegas and New york alone would be a drastic improvement. Next, design buildings so that any power over a given standard must be generated from the owner's own money.

Third do an energy wastage assessment, and rebuild every building wasting more than a certain level.

Then kill all lights for buildings after working hours, except for enough for night-flying aircraft to use for navigation.

Then once per month, celebrate Nyepi, all lights off, no cars, no TV, no streetlights, everyone stay home overnight.

No night sports in big stadiums, turn off the floodlights.

In short, start with the big boys, then work down to the individual consumer.

[patocc123]

I thought this was a joke comment then I realized that it wasn't.

[warner0683]

Well, I think the author is confused about units in the story. The author says 2000 Watts a second. Since watts is a power, a watt per second would describe the change of the power. It would be similar to an acceleration, where acceleration is the change in the speed of an object. Power is the rate of energy used per second. So the author needs to only say the town will try to live on an average of 2000 Watts. To be more precise the author should have calculated the amount of energy the world uses within a given time and then divided that amount by the population and then the number of seconds within the given time to get the average watts per person used.

[brynnzoid]

I think we can assume energy consumption, e.g. 1000 watts for 1 hour = 1 kW·h
Well done though, now everyone knows how clever you are

[yelobrikroad]

oompa loompa loompa dee do... I have another secret for you...