Energy efficiency: Indicator, estimation, and a new idea

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Authors
Chen, Ku Hsieh
Cheng, Jen-Chi
Lee, Joe Ming
Li, Liou Yuan
Peng, Sheng Yu
Advisors
Issue Date
2020-06-17
Type
Article
Keywords
Energy , Energy consumption , Energy efficacy , Energy efficiency , Stochastic frontier
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Chen, Ku-Hsieh; Cheng, Jen-Chi; Lee, Joe-Ming; Li, Liou-Yuan; Peng, Sheng-Yu. 2020. "Energy Efficiency: Indicator, Estimation, and a New Idea." Sustainability 12, no. 12: 4944
Abstract

Energy efficiency has long been an important issue to the global economic and political theaters; however, searching for an effective and concise measure for efficiency remains a contentious and intriguing topic. There are two obvious flaws with the commonly used metrics in existing literature. First, there is a sense of confusion and misunderstanding between the definitions of energy efficiency and efficacy. As a result, the formulae and methods for measuring efficiency are often the subject of criticism. Second, even if the definition of efficiency is clear, the method of estimation can be quite cumbersome, making it difficult to comprehend or implement. This study attempts to address these two issues.With an OECD comparative dataset, it first presents the contradiction between efficiency and efficacy, explains the loss of effectiveness with the existing measurements, and then proposes a new and easy-to-use method for gauging energy efficiency, so that the succinctness and robustness of the measurement can be re-established. The paper serves as a guide to those who are interested in the controversial issues related to measuring energy efficiency. Both practitioners and policy makers will find an easy and reliable tool from this paper for measuring energy efficiency.

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Description
© 2020 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal
Book Title
Series
Sustainability;v.12:no.12:art.no.4944
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
2071-1050
EISSN