Energy efficiency could yield energy savings worth $1.2 trillion, says McKinsey

clipped from www.energyefficiencynews.com A new report from consultants McKinsey says that a large-scale, holistic approach to energy efficiency could yield the US economy energy savings worth more than $1.2 trillion. The US has the potential to reduce annual energy consumption 23% – excluding transport – by 2020, says the report Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the US Economy. The commensurate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be equivalent to taking all US cars and light trucks off the road. This significant level of saving will require the US to make an initial up-front investment in energy efficiency measures of $520 million and overcomes the “widespread and persistent” barriers to their implementation. The major issue, says the report, is that the potential of energy efficiency measures are “highly fragmented, spread across more than 100 million locations and billions of devices used in residential, commercial and industrial settings.”