The Negawatt Revolution: Electric Efficiency and Asian Development

The paper contrasts the 'business-as-usual' approach of Asian utilities, which focus on increasing electricity sales and capacity, with a model adopted by some U.S. utilities that prioritizes customer efficiency and renewable energy. The authors argue that investing in efficient technologies—such as compact-fluorescent lamps and 'superwindows'—is significantly cheaper than building power plants and is essential for sustainable economic development in Asia.

• Inefficient equipment imports and domestic production create massive hidden costs for Asian nations. For example, inefficient motors from Taiwan can cost a country over $30,000 in extra electric capacity, which is tens of times the initial capital cost of the motor.
• Asian utilities generally operate on a model of selling bulk electricity and often use subsidized tariffs that encourage higher consumption, whereas some U.S. utilities, such as Pacific Gas & Electric Co., focus on producing customer satisfaction and meeting needs through efficiency and renewables.
• Investing in efficiency technologies provides far greater leverage than building power plants. A $7.5-million compact-fluorescent lamp factory can save as much electricity as a $1-billion, 700-megawatt power plant, requiring 140 times less capital investment.
• The 'business-as-usual' expansion of electrical supply in developing countries is financially unsustainable, with projected annual investments of nearly $70 billion by 2000, while available lending from the World Bank and other sources is less than $10 billion per year.
• Significant energy savings can be achieved in industrial and office sectors through retrofits. Industrial motor-system energy can be reduced by roughly half with a payback period of just over a year, while office lighting energy can be reduced by 70–90+% with a payback under two years.
• Integrated efficiency strategies for commercial buildings in ASEAN regions could yield drastic results; one conceptual design predicted an 86% electric saving at one-fourth the cost of a new power plant.

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} }