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Originally Posted by pig
If everyone reduced there energy use by 50% I think its fair to say the power stations would produce 50% less energy.
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power stations are designed to deliver energy at peaks in demand. at my uni many people believe that power stations on the scale they are used now, won't be necessery in the future anymore, because most energy shall be produced on local level; in structures. there will be agents on small-(buildings) and big (neighbourhoods, citys, regions) scale to regulate supply and demand of energy. this is kind of a hot item in the world of sustainable energy, as there's still much to gain on this field. there is for instance a rather interesting
project set up now where they try to connect 'peaks in demand' to 'low energyprizes' in time. you can imagine that when, for example, we get more energy out of windpower, prizes will be more expensive when there's lack of wind. in structures itself there's much to gain aswell. you can think of heating up water for your coffeedevice by re-using water that's been used in the shower, or controlsystems that give you options on when to do what; when doing the laundry would be 'the cheapest' option because there's much waste-energy available, or when energy is relatively cheap.
about 40% of all energy is being consumed in the built environment. my prediction is that bringing this number back shall have a priority in the western world, the next 20 years or so.