August 25, 2003—Energy-efficiency programs that expand markets for efficient products and practices have made excellent progress in the past decade, according to a new report published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit energy-efficiency organization. The report examined 28 “market transformation initiatives” underway around the US and found that several of these initiatives have largely transformed markets, and most have made substantial progress, although many markets have substantial room for growth.
The report, Market Transformation: Substantial Progress from a Decade of Work, found that the initiative making the most progress addresses commercial exit signs. Education, incentives, and building codes have raised the market share for LED exit signs to 50-100% in many regions of the country, and the federal government is poised to establish a new national efficiency standard. This initiative has benefited from the fact that efficient equipment has multiple benefits (e.g., longer time between bulb changes), as well as substantial energy savings. On the other hand, efforts to promote heat pump water heaters have made little progress due to high product costs and technical problems with many of the products on the market.
To complement this new report, ACEEE has produced a series of six additional new reports providing information on new market transformation opportunities for the commercial and industrial sectors. The commercial sector reports depict commissioning of existing buildings, advanced lighting technologies (such as “super T8 lamps” and ceramic metal halide lamps), packaged refrigeration systems (e.g., refrigerators and ice-makers), and unit heaters (wall-mounted heaters used to heat open spaces). Another report describes fan and pump system optimization in the industrial sector.
The reports on new program opportunities demonstrate that substantial energy savings are possible with energy-efficient equipment and practices. For example: 40-50% energy savings are possible from efficient commercial refrigerators and freezers, 15-50% from advanced lighting systems and optimized fan and pump system designs, 20% from efficient unit heaters, and 5-20% from commissioning of existing commercial buildings.
