What is an efficient energy system?

 

I  was having a discussion about developing the "worlds most efficient energy system". This got me thinking how this actually should be defined. What is an "efficient" energy system really? Immediate thought is of course that it is a system producing energy in the most efficient way using as little primary energy sources and producing minimum amount of emissions. But lets instead take a step back and think about what this end product energy is actually used for.


We need energy to fulfill our daily needs, to achieve a certain level of quality of life. These things are however very much subjective.


I visited Tanzania some years ago and went to see this "slum" area. In the way we from the so called "developed" countries see it, it was terrible and dirty. No running water, no electricity, etc. But people were actually quite happy we heard. The city authorities wanted to tear down the area to build some "nicer" district there,but those living there were just happy as it was and didnt want any change.





I am sure their energy system in this district was in our terms considered quite inefficient. Lots of primary energy/kWh produced, lots of emissions/kWh produced. On the other hand they maanged to fill their daily needs with a whole lot less primary energy and emissions than we do. So looknig at the end product "fulfill your daily needs" or "subjective quality of life" their system is really efficient!

A house in the slum area in Mwanza, maybe 5 families living here?

 A"nice" villa in the rich part of the same city, Mwanza. One family living here. Probably consuming 10 times the energy

Now unfortunately I dont think there is any "going back" for us in the developing world in terms of getting along with 1/10 of the energy use we do today. Even though we did that  quite well for only a century ago. And I admit I coudlnt do it mysef either, I do like chargin my ipad, iphone and PC. I love to travel and I live in a way too big house considering our actual needs. But lets still keep this aspect in mind, resepct and admire real efficient use of energy and lets be carefull to push our "efficient" solutions to those people allready living far more efficiently than us!