Although nearly-zero energy building standards will be mandatory only for new buildings by 2020 the next and even more important question is how to transform the building stock to that level until 2050. The sheer magnitude of this challenge requires that in principle every building owner must be given a sufficient set of options to have a fair and equal chance to transform his property to nearly-zero energy standard. Thus electricity from on-site, nearby and off-site sources must be a natural part of the set of options.

The chart shows that energy efficiency met nearly three quarters of the demand for services, while energy supply met only one quarter.

"One immediate conclusion from this assessment is that the productivity of our economy may be more directly tied to greater levels of energy efficiency rather than a continued mining and drilling for new energy resources," wrote Laitner.

One would assume that ecology and the Energiewende, Germany’s plans to phase out nuclear energy and increase its reliance on renewable sources, were natural allies. But in reality, the two goals have been coming into greater and greater conflict. "With the use of wood, especially," Kaiser says, "the limits of sustainability have already been exceeded several times."  […]

Greens in Awkward Position

Although this conflict touches all political parties, none is more affected than the Greens. Since the party’s founding in 1980, it has championed a nuclear phaseout and fought for clean energy. But now that this phaseout is underway, the Greens are realizing a large part of their dream — the utopian idea of a society operating on "good" power — is vanishing into thin air. Green energy, they have found, comes at an enormous cost. And the environment will also pay a price if things keep going as they have been.

Encroaching on Nature Reserves

The opposition in Berlin has so far contented itself with criticizing Merkel, believing that her climate policies have failed and that she has steered Germany’s most important infrastructure project into a wall. Granted, neither the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) nor the Greens are part of the ruling coalition at the federal level, but they do jointly govern a number of Germany’s 16 federal states. And, when forced to choose between nature and renewable energies, it is usually nature that take a back seat in those states.

Her technique involves the use of a chemical to artificially select populations of algae cells with high oil content. She did all the work in a makeshift lab under her loft bed in Colorado Springs.

The grass species in question that prompted protests by US researchers are Arundo donax, known as giant reed, and Pennisetum purpureum, also called elephant grass. In their native regions in India and Africa, these grass grow at a normal pace, kept in check by equally strong plant species, and by elephants who feed on them.

Because they can grow rapidly and don’t require high-quality soil, giant reed and elephant grass are seen as ideal biofuel plants. But those very same qualities have turned the two into dangerous weeds that, under the right conditions, can spread at an uncontrollable pace and overgrow entire fields.

When it comes to genetically-altered plants, officials in Europe carefully scrutinize the environmental consequences before granting approval. The same risk analysis is needed for all other plants, too, Tim Low says. One state in Australia has banned the cultivation of the biofuel plant jatropha, for example, because it belongs to a long list of dangerous weeds.

These massive savings were driven by massive investments. $5.7 billion was spent on energy efficiency efforts in 2011 – with an 18% increase of $879 million over 2010 expenditure levels.

Ten states represented 71% of total energy efficiency spending, led by California’s $1.3 billion – nearly three times second-place New York State’s $554 million. Three states doubled their expenditures from 2010, and nine states increased their energy efficiency spending by over 50%.