Discussing Energy Sufficiency

Energy sufficiency has gained attention as a way to limit and reduce total energy consumption of a household or a country overall. Some of the intermediate results of theoretical and transdisciplinary investigations of the project "Energy Sufficiency" have been presented at the eceee 2015 Summer Study: "Energy sufficiency policy: an evolution of energy efficiency policy or radically new approaches?" by Stefan Thomas, Johannes Thema, Michael Kopatz (Wuppertal Institute) and Lars-Arvid Brischke (ifeu) focuses on the policy part of the project. In their paper "Energy sufficiency in private households enabled by adequate appliances", Lars-Arvid Brischke, Franziska Lehmann, Leon Leuser, Stefan Thomas and Carolin Baedeker summarise the project findings. Additionally, Anja Bierwirth and Stefan Thomas examine in their paper "Almost best friends: sufficiency and efficiency; can sufficiency maximise efficiency gains in buildings?" main drivers of increasing floor space per capita in Germany and discuss the question if more space is necessary for higher comfort.

The papers are available for download.