Why do we have to save energy?
Saving energy is more cost-efficient, durable and beneficial for the environment solution than building new power stations.
The demand for energy keeps increasing. According to the estimates, in Europe the demand may increase by nearly 50% by 2030. Yet, more than 80% of our energy comes from shrinking non-renewable sources: petroleum, pit-coal and natural gas. According to the data concerning the energy efficiency published in the Green Book (COM(2005) 265), the increase of the demand for energy might lead to increased dependence of the European Union on the supplies of fuels from foreign markets – up to the level of 80-90% by 2003. Therefore, the European Union made a commitment to increase the energy efficiency by 20% and to raise the share of renewable sources up to 20% by 2020 (comparing to 1990 levels).
Oil and gas pools are distributed among small number of countries and their import is often subject to political pressures. On the other hand, huge Polish deposits of coal can be utilised in much more rational manner than quick combustion, which irreversibly deprives our country of valuable resources.
Quick depletion of available fuel resources is followed by the increases of their prices and the prices of generated energy. For example, in 1990-2004, the prices of energy for Polish households increased as much as five times.
In some sectors of the economy – such as industry and housing – the problem of rising energy prices and changes in the structure of final consumption was noticed. The result is not only the reduction of the demand for energy, but also a reduction of the costs of maintenance of flats and the energy consumption of the entire economy, as well as a reduction of the emissions of greenhouse gasses generated in the process of energy generation.
In connection with the fact that most of the energy is being lost through external surfaces (walls, roofs and ceilings) – as much as 46% in multi-apartment residential buildings – and windows (30%), the modernisation of buildings and the improvement of their energy standards alone may reduce their consumption of energy by as much as 70-90%.
Good insulation is always the basis for the improvement of the energy efficiency of buildings. According to the data of the Polish National Energy Conservation Agency (KAPE S.A.), the largest thermoinsulation potential in Poland have buildings older than 33 years, and the actual savings potential is 70 TWh. In order to obtain such a level of energy savings, 4 million of flats must be thermomodernised.
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