by Brianna Crandall — October 16, 2015—R. Neal Elliott, associate director for research for the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), had the following to say about the recent release of the second Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR), by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House Office of Science and Technology:
The 489-page tome bears resemblance to many other government reports that are too often relegated to the “TL;DR” file — too long; didn’t read. That would be unfortunate for those of us who care about the future of energy efficiency technologies.
The report contains a wealth of numbers about energy use and the technologies that can affect the future of energy efficiency in the U.S. economy, and it presents four trends:
- Convergence: All sectors of the economy are becoming increasingly interdependent.
- Diversification: Energy sectors are shifting to diversified, distributed resources — a trend ACEEE has been seeing in state and local energy planning.
- Confluence: Computing power and simulation are ushering in a new era of “systems by design,” much the same as the concept of intelligent efficiency that ACEEE has been advancing.
- Efficiency everywhere: Energy efficiency is a critical element in achieving national energy security, cost, and environmental goals …
The rest of Elliott’s blog post is available on the ACEEE Web site.
