New Statesman energy supplement - May 2006

My contribution to the NS energy supplement ("Wasting assets") focussed on energy efficiency starts with the remarkable fact that the internal rate of return on the small investment of £2.50 in replacing a conventional lightbulb with a low energy lightbulb is about 400%. Believe it or not ( and understand how sad that is...) I've got this investment case worked out on a spreadsheet. This is part of a wider and much larger case for energy efficiency.

Take a look at DEFRA's assessment of the cost effectiveness of the measures taken to tackle climate change (PDF). This highlights what extremely good investments the climate change programme has stimulated... The total value of policies with positive lifetime NPV is £100 billion, and the total value for the rest is –£18 billion. The overall lifetime present value of the CCP is £80 billion, of which nearly half arises from the 2002 domestic building regulations. This is expressed in the chart, which I have been using in recent presentations to the left.

Also well worth reading in the supplement is Dieter Helm's piece - venting his familiar but highly enjoyable attack on the uselessness of politicians when it comes to energy.