See Eric - that's looking at the problem from the past and trying to define tomorrow thru the rear-view mirror. We don't navigate and pilot a boat by focusing on the wake, right?
I wasn't trying to define the entire problem though - only set two pseudo-extremes or bounds for further discussion.
I didn't say 'economic' efficiency - I actually intended electrical. And yet... The economics would work out beautifully if ALL subsidies stopped and ALL power producers were required to include the externalities - like paying for mercury emissions from coal plants. According to a recent intergovernmental panel on climate change report on the state of renewables, a kWh of wind is either slightly above or slightly below the cost of a kWh of coal. The difference appears to be transmission losses. It's more efficient - electrically and economically - to plant wind turbines closer to the consumers. Like off-shore wind for Houston rather than piping the electrons over land from a turbine in North Dakota.
There was an excellent segment on E2 Design from PBS about new commercial building construction in China. Seems that since the US market isn't very interested in efficiency, American designers are working with the Chinese to design self-sufficient buildings and complexes - like a 5 tower housing complex that captures rainwater on green roofs; reuses greywater for air conditioning, gardening, and landscaping; uses combined heat/power units on site; and incorporates active (PV) and passive solar in the design. It uses about 40% of the energy and water of a similar sized building in the US.
Net-zero buildings are a nice start, but we've had the ability to cut about 40% or more off the energy bill in efficiency - and I think that should be done well before one bolts up PV.Using less energy means the energy demand curve flattens, fewer new centralized plants are needed, and we don't need to build as much new infrastructure. And every building that starts life completely off-grid is even better.
Sorry, no - even though my water and electricity use is waaaaay below my neighbors, the city and thus the city-owned power and water companies get the same money from me as my neighbors for transformers. Your mileage may vary, of course...
Mine will too - I'm headed off the water, sewer, and electrical grid...
IPCC Special Report on Renewables - 77% of world energy could be supplied by renewables by 2050:
http://cms.srren.ipcc-wg3.de/index_html
See page 8 for global price comparisons:
http://cms.srren.ipcc-wg3.de/ipcc-srren-generic-presentation-1
Efficient Housing:
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/ees/etsd/btric/pdfs/whole_tva_zeh_fs_2-07.pdf
http://www.premiersips.com/Comparisons/ZEH5_40_saver.pdf
REALLY Efficient Housing:
http://www.earthship.com