So I just received a news release from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), revealing the results of their 2014 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard. They have referred to this year's version as the "World Cup" of Energy Efficiency.
Follow me below the fold for a quick summary. Spoiler alert: Germany beat the U.S.
To give some background on the study, I pulled the following quote from the ACEEE website:
In this second edition of the International Energy Efficiency Scorecard, we analyze the world’s 16 largest economies, comprising more than 81% of global gross domestic product and about 71% of global electricity consumption. We looked at 31 metrics, divided roughly in half between policies and quantifiable performance, to evaluate how efficiently these economies use energy
Needless to say, this is pretty important. The environmental impact of wasteful energy usage is obvious, but these metrics also speak to economic efficiency. The very core of wealth creation is how well a society converts resources (human effort/creativity or "natural") to improve the standard of living of its citizens.
So the good news first: the United States scored higher than Mexico (#16), Russia (#15) and Brazil (#14). The bad news is that we scored lower than the following countries:
12. South Korea
11. India
10. Australia
9. Canada
8. Spain
6 & 7. United Kingdom & Japan (tie)
4 & 5. France & China (tie)
3. European Union as a whole
2. Italy
1. Germany
The graphic below spells the results out. It is available here.
THE ACEEE 2014 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY SCORECARD, © ACEEE
I haven't had time to digest the entire 104 page report, since I just received the email/press release at noon. The full report requires a login (unlike the photo I pasted in above), so I can't just link to it. But the overall results are unsettling.