We were excited to read about the government’s new National Energy Efficiency Strategy in the Guardian this week.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has put the strategy together in a bid to cut the UK’s energy use by 11 per cent by 2020.
This is no small feat and if successful, the energy efficiency measures could save the UK the equivalent of the annual output of 22 power stations, reducing CO2 emissions by 41 megatonnes.
By 2025 the UK’s energy use could see a further two per cent reduction, making it 13 per cent lower than it is today.
Among the proposed plans are some fairly obvious steps, such as making public buildings more energy efficient.
But our favourite suggestion was the zany idea to start labelling electrical appliances in a similar way to processed food.
Instead of the salt and fat content you would expect to see on a packet of crisps, consumers will be able to see the lifetime cost of running an appliance on its label.
It is hoped that this move will encourage customers to choose more energy efficient products, just as food labels make it easier to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy meals.
These labels will initially only be on electrical products sold by John Lewis. Let’s hope other stores get on board with the idea too.
With initiatives like this and the efforts of forward thinking companies like Ecotricity, which provides 64 per cent of the electricity Glide supplies to customers, the future is starting to look much brighter for UK energy.