The reality is that chasing sunlight to get work finished, and not having electricity consistently available, is not out of the norm for the rest of the world. Seventeen percent of the world’s population currently lives without electricity. South Carolina ranks 19 out of the 50 states in greatest energy consumption and is the number one energy consumer per capita on the east coast.
This is almost unimaginable for the majority of Americans because, as a nation, it uses 25 percent of the world’s energy and makes up only 5 percent of the world’s population. The U.S. has one of the highest energy per capita rates in the world. The United States does not only use tremendous amounts of energy, but it also does so inefficiently. The United States ranks very low on the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) energy efficiency scorecard doing better than just a few nations (Mexico, Brazil, and Russia).
There are nations that use energy much differently than those in the United States. Introducing renewable energy into the system, modifying structures and systems to be more efficient, and ultimately reducing the amount of energy consumed. Some nations have made great strides in energy efficiency as Philipp Ackermann, the deputy chief of mission at the German embassy in Washington summarizes Germany’s exceptional energy efficiency rating by stating, “I think – the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t have to produce in the first place.”South Carolina is
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