Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
measures, the changes in attitude and behavior, and the level of entrepreneurial
activity in energy conservation and material efficiency.
Energy efficiency or energy conservation is a component of economic efficiency,
but not always the dominant one. The productive sector simply considers energy
as a relatively minor production ingredient, in addition to capital, labor, and raw
materials. In addition, issues related to energy frequently require specific know-
ledge that is quite distant from the enterprise's final activity. The situation gets even
more difficult when the income of a company, of an economic sector, and even of a
country, derives mainly from selling primary energy products. In these cases, there
is opposition to energy conservation, as efficiency measures represent, at least in
principle, a decrease in profits. That is the case, for example, of manufacturers of
vehicles for the luxury segment; power utilities, which sell electricity for profit (ex-
cept for sectors with subsidized prices, such as for low-income populations); large
oil companies; and international bodies, such as the Organization of Petroleum Ex-
porting Countries (OPEC).
The main barriers to energy conservation, in addition to the loss of income on
the part of the utilities, are the low price of energy for certain sectors, which does
not reflect fully the generation costs; the lack of priority placed upon energy, as it is
considered a fixed cost in companies devoted to other activities; lack of consumer
understanding about transitioning to a more efficient system, as long-term costs are
not evident; the lack of information provided by manufacturers and by sellers of
products that consume energy; the limited availability of efficient equipment in the
market; the lack of financing by third parties; the short-term economic-financial
view, mainly in inflationary cultures with high interest rates; and the lack of laws
and regulatory instruments that make energy efficiency compulsory.
The maximum efficiency of conventional systems for electricity generation (steam
turbines and boilers) using fossil fuels is rarely greater than 35%, which means that
65% of energy available in the fossil fuels is dissipated as low-temperature heat.
Modern turbines, however, usually recover lost heat, using the residual heat to gen-
erate more electricity and increasing their efficiency to approximately 50%. Such
systems are called combined cycle systems.
