ESRIG-EES colloquium: Franco Ruzzenenti, Assistant professor at IVEM

Title: The Jevon's paradox: is energy efficiency a solution?

Summary:
When a new, more efficient technology leads to a less-than-expected savings or even a greater energy consumption, this is referred to as the Rebound Effect. Stanley Jevons, as early as in 1865, maintained that efficiency renders energy more affordable, hence: it is a wholly confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. After him, still many refer to the Rebound Effect as the Jevons' Paradox and the notion that efficiency prompts greater energy consumption is indeed paradoxical. However, this paradox remains unexplained, as most of scientific endeavour has been place in measuring rather than understanding it. Is the Jevon's Paradox (or the Rebound Effect) a serious threat to the policies aimed at reducing energy consumption by prompting energy efficiency? And if this the case, what should we do, pursue less efficient technologies? A paradox, indeed.

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/6598/the-rebound-effect-and-the-jevons-paradox-beyond-the-conventional-wisdom