For the fifth year in a row, energy efficiency has again been found to be the cheapest, fastest, and cleanest source of energy. That's the finding of a new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), released yesterday in Washington, D.C. It costs far less than new fossil energy, new nuclear energy, or new renewable energy. It stands to reason that if we can save energy more cheaply than we can produce it, that "frees up" the energy saved for other uses. That's an energy "source." From society's perspective, saving energy is the same as producing new energy.

The cost of utility programs to save energy has held steady for five years as well. It's a bargain. This rebuts the view that it's getting harder to save energy as the low-hanging fruit is picked. What's true is that the more we look for energy savings, the more we find. The more we save energy, the better our tools and technologies for saving energy.

According to Katherine Friedrich of ACEEE, lead author of the report, 

"Energy efficiency is by far the least costly energy resource option available for utility resource portfolios. Saving a kilowatt-hour through energy efficiency improvements is easily one-third or less the cost of any new source of electricity supply, whether conventional fossil fuel or renewable energy source. In addition, the results of this research suggest that the cost of energy efficiency has remained very consistent over time, even in the face of increasingly ambitious energy savings levels. Energy efficiency appears to be a resource that continues to renew itself - the more energy efficiency opportunities we look for, the more we find."

Read the full press release by ACEEE here.