--- title: Energy Efficiency | TIME description: Energy Efficiency canonical: https://time.com/video/zbqRyiaG/ og:title: Energy Efficiency og:description: Energy Efficiency og:url: https://time.com/video/zbqRyiaG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zbqRyiaG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Energy Efficiency twitter:description: Energy Efficiency twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zbqRyiaG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Energy Efficiency > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Energy Efficiency [Watch (HLS stream): Energy Efficiency](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zbqRyiaG.m3u8) (2:59)  _Published 2011-12-02. Energy Efficiency_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It](/video/wu59GHs3/) ### Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It [Time Explains: Energy Efficiency](/video/DDVcGaZL/) ### Time Explains: Energy Efficiency [Energy Use](/video/tx1K8mzB/) ### Energy Use --- ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You mentioned the word efficiency and, and, and to me that's the number one alternative. In, in terms of the virtual power plant or the virtual refinery or the virtual whatever. You, you, you, you talked at the beginning of when setting the scene about the percentages and, and what's gonna be what. Efficiency, if you, if you consider alternative source of energy stands to, with respect to what we did today, stands to give you 25 or 30 %. Which is a bigger bigger growth than any of the other things that are expected to give you. So, there's a tremendous opportunity to look at energy efficiency, more than a cost saving measure, more than a, I mean its a truly sustainable thing because when you do that... You cut the baseline down and when you cut the baseline down that, that benefit stays forever. And and it's to, to us, it, we see that as a, as a virtual refinery. We, if energy efficiency could increase in, in cars by 30 % or 40 %. That means we probably would not have to build another refinery. Okay. And, and that's a serious alternative to be to be considered in any environment. On the efficiency question, I, I try to split that into two pieces. One is maybe the conservation question in the sense of, when you can choose not to use energy, choose not to use energy. There are many things that we use energy for that we don't need to. For the most part, people would much rather be in a room that is lit by natural lighting than in a room that has glaring fluorescence. I mean, it's, it's kind of crazy to, to do otherwise. And there are many, many obvious things. But, I would, I would try to split that question from when you know you have to use energy to use the minimum amount required to do the job. And that's, that's an interesting and tough question. And it's very personal to me cuz that's what my group works on. But we we track things very carefully, particularly making work from a chemical energy resource. We track its exergy or available energy as we go through. But here's the depressing point. If we double the efficiency of pretty much all those devices. We still haven't done enough. We will still be swamped by population going from 7 billion to 9 billion, maybe 10 billion. And by average energy use from two kilowatts a person to five kilowatts a person to heaven forbid, US ten years ago of ten kilowatts per person. We, we'll overrun that factor of two that quickly. And so, it really is, is a tough set of choices. And it's gonna require a really broad, broad way of thinking. In order to be able to, to tackle this. Particularly in the back half of the century. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Energy Efficiency","description":"Energy Efficiency","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zbqRyiaG/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-12-02T20:37:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zbqRyiaG.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/zbqRyiaG/","duration":"PT2M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/zbqRyiaG/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```