Introduction

Energy Efficiency
Energy consumption accounts for nearly 80% of the man-made C02 emissions and causes irreversible damage to our climate and environment as a whole. Projections by the EU Commission indicate that an increase of energy efficiency of 1 percentage per year two-thirds of the available savings potential could be achieved by 2010 - resulting in avoided CO2 emissions of almost 200 Mt/year or around 40% of the EU's Kyoto commitment. There is a very large economic potential of unrealized energy savings, especially in private households, ppliances, buildings and in the transport sector. Estimates are that the Union’s current energy consumption is approximately 20% higher than can be justified on economic grounds. The average cost of saving a unit of electricity in the domestic sector is around. 2.6 € cents. The average off peak price for delivered electricity is around 3.9 € cent/kW. Without reducing comfort or standards of living, it is therefore possible to reduce energy consumption by at least one fifth at no extra cost and in many cases with considerable profit. Given that half of Europe's power generation capacity is due to be retired by 2020 there are huge savings in managing the demand for electricity