More Energy Efficiency = More Energy Consumption, the paradox of Jevons

February 8th, 2014 by Energyworx

Advancing technology increases efficiency of usage of (energy) resources, but this advancing technology also increases consumption.

Economist William Stanley Jevons made this statement already in 1865, but does this paradox still apply in this 21st century?

Even though the efficiency of the usage of energy resources increases, the intensity per used unit of energy per gross national product also increases. Advancing technology and industry innovations forces up the needed units of energy resources to maintain the required units of gross national product. This interesting theory is not new, to the contrary it has been described as “Energy Intensity” index in an article called “The Economics of Exhaustible Resources” by Harold Hotelling in the “Journal of Political Economy” in an issue of April 1931!

See the wiki page on Jevons Effect in English

Bekijk de wiki pagina over het Jevons Effect in het Nederlands

— Energyworx