![]() ![]() The differences between these regimes can be illustrated graphically by the plots contained in Figure 1. As such, the quantity of energy required for an individual or household to sustain a decent existence in a particular place is unrelated to whether or not one can consume energy in excess of that quantity. This is because the quantity of energy required for a productive social and economic life is locationally determined. In other instances, the rapid growth in the adoption of distributed renewable energy generation and storage resources, is even causing some residential buildings to intermittently switch from being net consumers to net-suppliers of energy to the electric power grid ( Li and Yi, 2014 Janko et al., 2016 Kurdgelashvili et al., 2019).Įnergy sufficiency is not defined with respect to personage it is independent of wealth and notions of socio-economic status ( Fawcett and Darby, 2018). In addition to the changing dynamics within these traditional categories of residential energy end-use, a rapidly expanding market for electric vehicles is causing residential buildings to increasingly function as conduits for the supply of an entirely new sector of energy demand: transportation ( Needell et al., 2016 Bunsen et al., 2018). These include growth in the size of new residential structures and the penetration levels of the most energy intensive appliances ( Isaac and van Vuuren, 2009 Zhou et al., 2014 Fournier et al., 2019). Working in opposition to these trends however, have been other, troubling, developments. Over the past several decades, numerous incremental improvements have been made to the efficiency with which many of these services can be rendered ( Meyers et al., 2003 Brown et al., 2008). The suite of end-use energy demands supplied within residential buildings have historically been limited to: space heating and cooling, refrigeration, water heating, ventilation, cooking, lighting, laundry, computing and entertainment equipment, and other miscellaneous plug loads ( Hirst and Jackson, 1977 Schipper et al., 1982). In this way, the impacts of major energy system transformations have the potential to reverberate through every aspect of society. These embedded expectations are evident in the layout of our cities, the design of our homes, the types of energy appliances that we own, and the frequency and intensity with which we use them ( Banister et al., 1997 Kahn, 2000 Ewing and Rong, 2008). People, often subconsciously, structure their lives around the expectation that the energy services they use will not change, and will continue to be available more or less indefinitely ( DiCicco et al., 2015). This statement applies not only to their physical manifestations but also to popular consumer expectations regarding the price-performance role of energy services ( Goldthau and Sovacool, 2012 Stefes and Laird, 2012 Wilson, 2014 Edelstein and Kilian, 2009). Some of these interactions combine to produce large scale systemic transformations while others do not ( Grubler, 2012 Rutter and Keirstead, 2012 Cherp et al., 2018). Within them, technologies and policies interact with economics and social histories in unexpected ways. In conclusion, we suggest that the redistributive investment of public funds for the purpose of accelerating DAC participation in energy system transformations constitutes a socially optimal investment strategy – one which reflects the dramatically higher marginal utility of units of energy consumed at levels of sufficiency rather than excess.Įnergy systems are highly complex. We introduce a set of forecasts that show the extent to which current inequities in per-capita energy consumption, rates of vehicle electrification, and adoption of rooftop solar PV are likely to persist under the status quo. We argue that the magnitude of these differences reflect a fundamental departure in the use of energy from purposes of sufficiency to those of excess. These data show per-capita levels of electricity and natural gas consumption within DACs that are, on average, about half of those seen within their more affluent counterparts. ![]() Using historical time series data at the zipcode level within Los Angeles County, we document the scale and extent to which DACs continue to be left behind. Despite these positive developments however, the degree to which disadvantaged communities (DACs) have been able to participate in and benefit from these transformations remains far from equal. The decreasing cost and increasing availability of new technologies capable of improving household energy efficiency, generating and storing renewable energy, and decarbonizing major end use appliances have begun to significantly transform many residential communities across the U.S. ![]()
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