Relationship Between Energy Efficiency and the Economic System: Measuring Energy Efficiency

Abstract

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the problems of energy efficiency and energy savings. There has been substantial academic research on energy efficiency and most of this research has been beneficial. However, there are still some problems or obstacles about the research methods and objectives to be resolved: (1) The lack of awareness and understanding of energy efficiency leads to an improper use of energy data and energy efficiency indicators, which will probably lead to biased judgments and evaluations; (2) the confusion between the goals of energy research and ways to reach them, including the exogenous and endogenous factors as well as the analyses and results lead us to simply set our goals as “reducing energy consumption” and “decreasing energy consumption per unit of output.” If so, then in the long term, from an integrated perspective, energy efficiency will not be improved. Instead, there will be losses in other aspects of the economy and society; and (3) the lack of attention toward basic theories, assumptions, and relationships and the advantages and disadvantages of various indicators of energy efficiency leads to a casual use of the energy efficiency indicators, which will bias our judgments and evaluations.