That renewable energy is the future is a fairly risk-less prognostication. Why? Well, sunshine and wind are free - not to mention the gush of rivers and oceans and the many other natural forces that can be tapped in any number of increasingly creative ways.

In contrast, fossil fuel and even nuclear-powered plants will be faced with an increasingly intractable dilemma: they require fuel, and their fuel is available only in finite quantities. This doesn’t mean that we’ll soon - or ever - run out of oil, gas, or uranium; but, they are ultimately finite resources that become increasingly scarce each day. As scarcity increases, so do prices. Even in the medium term, it’s a difficult proposition for folks depending on finite fuels to compete with those of us leading the march towards employing infinite fuels such as sun and wind.

Once you’ve made the initial (albeit often hefty) investment in installing a renewable power generator unit of any sort, you’ve done the heavy lifting - you’re making money (and energy) whenever the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, only shelling out a modest amount for regular maintenance, etc. Not a bad deal.

Nonetheless, while renewables will someday soon be the ’steak’ of our energy and our economy, they’re currently still the ’sizzle’. Today, energy efficiency is the steak. Why? Well, it’s cheaper and - for the moment, at least - more effective.

The monumental scale of the opportunities for energy efficiency is an accidental outcome of the heretofore unsustainable evolution of the electrification of our economy. This first time around, we didn’t design our fixtures and our gadgets with a significant degree of foresight. That’s why we’re getting stung particularly harshly as energy prices push our utility bills skyward.

What’s the good news? Where pessimists and skeptics see lemons, we see particularly lucrative lemonade. There’s now a whole nation of inefficient items and appliances that can be easily replaced to achieve both better performance and an impressive, quantifiable improvement in energy expenses. (not to mention associated greenhouse gas emissions!)

An investment of as little as $50 in Earth Aid Kit energy efficiency upgrades, for example, can net an average household $300 in utility bill savings each year. Unless your home is already operating at peak efficiency, these simple energy efficiency upgrades are painless changes that anybody anywhere can make - including urban dwellers who don’t have access to a roof or yard in which to install renewable generation assets.

Act II - Steak & Sizzle Together: Why Efficiency is the Important Step Before Renewable Energy

Installing any sort of renewable energy asset today is a great idea, as we’ve discussed above. We don’t encourage waiting before taking the renewable leap, but we do encourage energy efficiency before jumping right in; it’s easy to see why this is a good idea, too:

It’s silly to spend $6000 on installing a backyard wind turbine to generate 1.2kWh of electricity when still can spend just $47 to save that much electricity.

How’s that? 1.2kWh of electricity is a significant amount. It’s more than enough to power an efficient home, but it doesn’t make a worthwhile dent if you’re not already efficient. For example, 1.2kWh is only enough to power 12 - that’s right, twelve - 100W incandescent light bulbs.

Twelve 100W incandescent bulbs use 1.2kWh (1,200 watts) each hour

Twelve 23W CFLs use only 0.27kWh (276 watts) each hour to do the same job

So, what’s the lesson? The short version is that you should spend $47 to significantly improve your efficiency before you spend several thousand to start generating your own power. Once you’re your own power company, you’ll appreciate that your primary customer runs a tight ship - especially because you’ll likely be able to sell to the big power companies any extra electricity that you generate and don’t use in your own home.

The Windspire Turbine on exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden generates 1.2kWh under normal conditions