Researchers from UC Berkeley and MIT have launched the E2e Project, an energy efficiency research project that aims to evaluate energy efficiency policies and technologies and open up the economic insights on energy efficiency.
The universities said that the program goal is to support and conduct objective research, and communicate their results to decision-makers.
The project is a joint initiative of the Energy Institute at Haas and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), an affiliate of MITEI. The group’s motivations for studying energy efficiency are derived from the McKinsey Curve – a cost curve that shows that reducing emissions pays for itself.
As one facet of the project, the researchers currently are tracking consumers’ vehicle purchasing decisions to learn if better information about a car’s fuel economy will influence the purchase of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Other initial projects include evaluating the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program and determining why households invest in energy efficiency and the returns on those investments.
The E2e Project, which is funded with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, seeks to answer questions such as:
