Assessing the residential lighting efficiency opportunities in Lithuania

We evaluate the conservation potential of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) for managing the residential electrical energy demand in Lithuania. The analysis is undertaken from the three separate perspectives of (1) the national economy, (2) the consumers and (3) the utilities. The costs of conserved energy of 15 and 23 watt CFLs vary from $0.009 to 0.036 per kWh depending on CFL price and daily lamp use. Replacing only the two most used 60 watt incandescent lamps per household with CFLs would save 190 GWh of electrical energy for Lithuania annually worth 12 million US dollars at long run marginal costs.We compare the existing residential lighting situation and energy efficiency opportunities in Lithuania with the situation in Hungary, where introduction of CFLs has been much more successful. We then discuss the barriers to immediate large-scale introduction of CFLs in Lithuania, and policy instruments that could be used for promoting the diffusion of CFLs in the residential sector of Lithuania.We conclude that future success of CFL penetration in Lithuania will depend on an aggressive information and promotion effort by at least the CFL manufacturers, or by any of the stakeholder institutions (e.g. the state agencies responsible for energy and environment, electric utilities, etc.).