Energy Library Archives

E99-18, Exchanges between Mark Mills and Amory Lovins about Electricity Used by the Internet (PDF-292k)

E99-16, Energy Surprises for the 21st Century (PDF-164k)

A good summary of RMI's perspective on energy trends (Fall 1999).

E98-05, Is Oil Running Out?, Science Magazine (PDF-12k)

Like uranium earlier, and coal increasingly, oil could become no longer worth extracting. This letter, by Amory Lovins, appeared in the October 1998 issue of Science Magazine (02 October 1998).

E98-03, Negawatts for Fabs: Advanced Energy Productivity for Fun and Profit (PDF-386k)

Slide presentation discussing the benefits of energy retrofits. Given by Amory Lovins to the NSF/SRC Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing Engineering Research Center (August 1998).

U96-11, Negawatts: Twelve Transitions, Eight Improvements, and One Distraction (PDF-166k)

Full text of an invited review article for Energy Policy's April 1996 special issue on the future of demand-side management (April 1996).

U95-37, FERC Letter Regarding Mega-NOPR (PDF-36k)

This letter, to the Secretary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), comments on two aspects of the Commission's 29 March 1995 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on open-access transmission: namely, the treatment of demand-side options (end-use efficiency and load management) and the potential for new dispersed generators whose total cost undercuts the short-run marginal wholesale power cost (24 July 1995).

E95-28, The Super-Efficient Passive Building Frontier, ASHRAE Journal (PDF-164k)

Integrated whole-building design can yield superior comfort with about three to thirty times less mechanical energy and often with lower capital costs, but that achieving this poses fundamental challenges to professional education and practice and to compensation structure. This article, by Amory Lovins, appeared in the ASHRAE Journal — The Magazine of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (June 1995).

U94-17, Negawatts: Is There Life After the CPUC Order? (PDF-60k)

The presentation addresses what they did, what they propose to do, motives, assurances, and basic issues. Keynote address by Amory Lovins, Director of Research, Rocky Mountain Institute, to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (16 May 1994).

E93-20, What an Energy-Efficient Computer Can Do (PDF-36k)

When you buy an energy-efficient desktop computer, you're getting more benefits than just a lower electric bill — and some of those benefits may be even more important to your business (10 August 1993).

E91-33, Least-Cost Climatic Stabilization (PDF-240k)

Global warming is not a natural result of normal, optimal economic activity. Rather, it is an artifact of the economically inefficient use of resources, especially energy. Advanced technologies for resource efficiency, and proven ways to implement them, can now support present or greatly expanded worldwide economic activity while stabilizing global climate and saving money. This paper appeared in the Annual Review of Energy Vol. 16 (31 July 1991).

E91-23, The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development (PDF-16k)

Why do Asia's utilities supply more electricity and ask their customers to do less with it, while many U.S. utilities seek to supply less and help their customers do more with it? Utilities on both sides of the Pacific have equally talented engineers and similar economic motives — but very different concepts of what business they're in (August 1991).

E91-10, If It's Not Efficient, It's Not Beautiful, Fine Homebuilding (PDF-44k)

I've long admired the beauty and craftsmanship of the houses featured in Fine Homebuilding. But in many of them there's something missing — a dedicated effort to use energy and water efficiently. Are builders so preoccupied with cabinetry and spiral stairs that they don't keep up with new resource-saving methods that make houses more affordable, comfortable and earth-friendly? This article, by Amory Lovins, first appeared in Fine Homebuilding (Spring 1991).

E90-28, Four Revolutions in Electric Efficiency (PDF-260k)

The "Four Revolutions in Electric Efficiency" to which the title of this paper refers are (i) very dramatic advances in technologies for improving end-use efficiency of electricity, (ii) ways to finance and deliver that hardware to the customers, (iii) cultural change within the utilities, and (iv) reinforcement of those cultural changes with reforms in regulatory philosophy and practice. This article appeared in Contemporary Policy Issues, Vol. VIII (July 1990).

E90-20, The Negawatt Revolution (PDF-225k)

Using existing technology we can save three fourths of all electricity used today. The best energy policy for the nation, for business, and for the environment is one that focuses on using electricity efficiently — for it's the only policy that makes economic sense. This article appeared in The Conference Board Magazine, Vol. XXVII No. 9 (September 1990).

E89-03, Nuclear Solution to the Greenhouse Effect? (PDF-340k)

Without substantial improvement in energy efficiency, even colossal worldwide expansion of nuclear power cannot prevent future carbon dioxide emissions from growing (1989).

E89-02, Energy Consumption—Energy Options (PDF-128k)

The greenhouse problem represents one of the greatest global environmental threats that civilization has faced. The overriding goal of energy policy should therefore be to make fossil fuel use "as low as reasonably achievable" (21 October 1988).

E88-31, Global Warming (PDF-140k)

Improving energy productivity can simultaneously ameliorate greenhouse warming, reduce acid rain and air pollution, save money, increase U.S. competitiveness abroad, and avoid the problems of nuclear power. Given the urgency of abating global warming, can we afford to invest in nuclear power when those same dollars put into efficiency would displace far more carbon dioxide? (26 August 1988).

E88-28, Greenhouse Warming: Efficient Solution or Nuclear Nemesis? (PDF-700k)

The threat of global climatic warming due to the atmospheric greenhouse effect is becoming increasingly urgent. While carbon dioxide has long been known to be a major culprit, recent research has uncovered a number of other "greenhouse" gases in the earth's atmosphere whose concentrations are rising. These additional gases (principally methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, and ozone) interact in a complex coupling of physical, chemical, and radiative processes, and their combined warming effects could be as great as those expected from carbon dioxide alone (29 June 1988).

E77-01, Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken? (PDF-140k)

For historical purposes many people asked that we re-release our 1977 paper, "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?". Unfortunately it is still very current, even though it has been out of print for decades. Where are America's formal or de facto energy policies leading us? Where might we choose to go instead? How can we find out? Addressing these questions can reveal deeper questions — and a few answers — that are easy to grasp, yet rich in insight and in international relevance. This paper explores such basic concepts in energy strategy by outlining and contrasting two energy paths that the United States might follow over the next 50 years — long enough for the full implications of change to start to emerge. This article, by Amory B. Lovins, appeared in Foreign Affairs (www.foreignaffairs.org), October 1976, and is reprinted by kind permission of the publisher. Copyright 1976 by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. (November 1977).