Best-practice and average practice: technique choice and energy demand in a vintage model

Abstract

Comparisons between best-practice use of energy and average practice have become quite popular in debates and scenarios about future need for energy, and sometimes fairly strong conclusions are drawn about long-run energy demand on the basis of such comparisons (see for example Goldemberg et al., 1988 and Johansson et al., 1989). Since in most sectors of an economy there is a substantial difference between the average and lowest energy input coefficients (i.e. the amount of energy used per unit output) an instantaneous adoption of best-practice energy-using technology in all sectors would decrease the use of energy radically.