The simple message is an economic one. We can save huge amounts of money from currently wasted use of resources, inefficient uses of energy, and an over supply of energy to deliver the actual service. What we always have to remember is that people want more homes, they want the ability to move and travel, they don’t want energy per se but they want the services delivered, and energy efficiency at the core is delivering those services at the absolute greatest efficiency.
We’ve calculated that in meeting our plan, our vision of a 20% improvement of energy efficiency can save the people of this country, the businesses of this country, over €1.6 billion by implementing the 90 measures, the 90 actions that were set out here. That’s 1.6 billion we can spend in our education system, in our health system, in our transport system, delivering other services by just being efficient in our provision of energy services. That’s why it has set the stage now in our government’s plans, in our governments thinking that is a central component for our smart economy, because that is the ultimate smart measure; deliver services you need with least waste. The areas of savings are significant is business, some €380 million, in our homes €680 million on our housing sector alone, and in transport over half a billion, and this is in a world where we know in this next ten year period we’re facing a world where oil will not be readily available. This is not a time to be wasteful with energy. This is a time to be efficient.
This is the background policy suggested in this plan. I will not go into the 90 actions we are setting out, because it’s not complete. Our estimates show we can get most of the way there, but we are going to need to go further so we’re going to take further measures as we learn and pick up from experience. Here are just some of the ones I wanted to highlight. First I want to recognize the industrial sector. The industrial sector offers the greatest potential. We’re already working on that. We’ve already saved some 55 million on the budgets of the companies that have been involved. We are putting particular attention in the industrial sector, to the connections we see between the development of the new information technology and actual energy efficiency. We are fortunate in our Department that we’ve combined those two roads.
We’ve seen increasing opportunity for this economy which has a large amount of expertise in the ICT and the ICT services area to really push efficiencies, in that to use computing and other technological developments as a way to create huge efficiencies. The laptops, even the standard laptops we have now is some five times more efficient if you take out the hard disk or take out the other unnecessary devices that you can now use by accessing other services. We’re looking to be leaders in that space. To be leaders, and we’ve already set financial tax measures to encourage hyper efficient data centres which mean the overall networks that runs those ICT technology can use a minimal amount of energy. We have companies in the country that are world leaders in the development of new laser technology which will allow a colour coded laser system that will allow the internet to work on a fraction of what the energy it is currently using.
We have in our city here world leading research on the next phase of computing which is estimated to be a thousand times more efficient then the current. That’s the sort of expansion, the sort of game changing technology that are available to us, particularly in the ICT sector where we want to concentrate our energy efficiency measures in our industrial areas. In our homes we are already working on our Warmer Homes Scheme, talking to people on lower incomes to retrofit their homes. Our Home energy Savings Scheme which is giving people the option to get an assessment on the performance on their house, get advice on how to improve it, grants to actually pay for those improvements, an assessment afterwards, and a before-and-after measure so you know you have a status to the good work that’s being done. There’s been huge public response to that. Its only two months old and we’ve had tens of thousands who have shown interest in the program. Work has started, work has been completed, and that is a huge step in the right direction.
I’m announcing here today that we want to go further. We want to go in the renting sector and look at individual landlords receiving rent allowances and say now we are insisting that if you are receiving allowances, you will operate your buildings to make them warmer, cleaner, happier homes for those who are using those properties. Using the same infrastructure we have in terms of building energy ratings, in the grants we have available in the knowledge that return in investment for any landlord is better then any other investment you can make by retrofitting such insulation to the homes .We are now insisting that those landlords receiving such rent allowances will have that work done and will actually create a better roomer home for those in rented property.
In government we are determined to lead by example. We’re not committing to the 20% targeted set out by the EU but to go further to one third improvement in energy efficiency. Particularly in our public building, there are close to a thousand buildings in state ownership of over a thousand square meters in size. We want to set up a model particularly looking at the use of energy service companies. We think we can get a payback, we can better use of the state resources, we can make huge savings, and once their made, their there forever and a day afterwards. So in government particularly through the use of the energy service models we are looking to show a lead.
In our utilities, in our energy supplies companies, we are going to place on them, by the end of the year, an obligation that they actually have to lead on terms of their customers’ behalf provide energy saving measures and start measuring their success by how they reduce energy supply for their customers rather then how much they actually sell.
It’s every business’ interest to work together on this agenda because this is the way forward; this is the centre of energy policy. Ultimately, the first test is do you use the energy well and wisely? Is there no waste? Minimizing that is our first priority and this actually sets out that this are is our priority in the smart economy.
We are very fortunate this morning that we have for Amory Lovins joining us. For anyone that’s been involved in the energy or anyone with passing interest in energy policy he doesn’t need to be introduced. He is the world leading expert in this area. He has been a visionary and set out in a series of books, ideas and concepts that have become mainstream but he was considering ten, twenty, and thirty years ago. Some the lines that he used, and in fact the simple message that I take, that I think you said once is that we can plan an economy that is thriving and secure for all and forever, and that’s a vision that we can join and in this country we can actually set as our goal. We have everything in our grasp to be 100% carbon neutral in energy production, to be a leading efficient user of energy. Why not follow that as a model? I salute Amory Lovins, who in energy, has lead the world in the thinking and the real change that has started to happen and I very much appreciate you coming here.