The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development

The research paper "The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development" argues that Asian development is hindered by the adoption of inefficient electrical equipment and a utility business model focused on increasing sales rather than customer satisfaction. The authors contrast this with a shift in the U.S. utility sector toward "negawatts"—saving electricity through efficiency and renewables—which is presented as a significantly cheaper and more sustainable alternative to building new power plants.

• Asian development is threatened by the adoption of obsolete and inefficient electrical equipment, which creates unnecessary demand for power capacity and capital. For example, China's attempt to increase refrigerator ownership using obsolete Japanese factory designs committed the country to "upwards of a half-billion unavailable dollars’ worth of electric capacity" and decades of pollution.
• Many Asian utilities operate on a model of selling more kilowatt-hours, often using subsidized tariffs that encourage higher usage and failing to help customers improve efficiency. This contrasts with some U.S. utilities, such as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), which plans to meet new power needs in the 1990s primarily through "improved customer efficiency" (at least three-fourths) and renewable sources.
• Investing in efficiency is vastly more cost-effective than building new power plants. A $7.5 million factory producing high-efficiency compact-fluorescent lamps can save as much electricity as a $1 billion, 700-megawatt power plant. In India, such a factory could displace on-peak capacity costing between $2.2 billion and $5.6 billion, or up to $9.4 billion based on World Bank estimates.
• The use of "superwindows"—which use thin-film coatings and insulating-gas fillings like argon to block solar heat while letting in light—can displace the need for air conditioning. A $10-million superwindow plant in Bangkok could provide more comfort than 3,000 megawatts of generating plants, which would cost 185-460 times more (or 770 times more by World Bank costs).
• The "business-as-usual" expansion of electrical supply in developing countries is financially unsustainable. Power investments are projected at nearly $70 billion annually until 2000, but available lending from the World Bank and other sources is less than $10 billion per year.
• Significant energy savings can be achieved through industrial and office retrofits. Roughly half of industrial motor-system energy can be saved with a payback of just over a year. In office lighting, advanced reflectors and electronic ballasts can save 70–90+% of lighting energy with a payback under two years.
• Integrating multiple efficiency measures can lead to extreme savings. A conceptual design for an office predicted an 86% electric saving at one-fourth the cost of a new power plant, utilizing lightshelves, high-efficiency lighting (300 lux with 3–4 W/m2), superwindows, and more efficient space-conditioning equipment.

APA

Lovins, A. B., & Gadgil, A. (1991). The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E91-23_NegawattRevolution.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory B., and Ashok Gadgil. The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development. RMI, 1991. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E91-23_NegawattRevolution.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory B. |last2=Gadgil |first2=Ashok |title=The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development |publisher=RMI |date=1991 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E91-23_NegawattRevolution.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovins1991negawatt, author = {Lovins, Amory B. and Gadgil, Ashok}, title = {{The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {1991}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_E91-23_NegawattRevolution.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }