☙

Rosenfeld

A proposed unit of rate of saving of electricity, equal to a reduction of 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The unit was proposed in 2010 in an article signed by 54 distinguished energy efficiency researchers.¹ The quantity was chosen as representing the electricity supplied for one year at the meter by a typical existing, coal-fired, 500-MW power plant.

The unit was not offered as an aid to sophisticated analyses, but to communication with the general public, who don't know from exajoules. They find it much easier to visualize savings in terms of power plants they won't have to build and operate.

1 Rosenfeld corresponds to 1 average 1990's coal-fired power plant. Save 5 Rosenfelds, save 5 such power plants.
1 Rosenfeld corresponds to avoiding emission of 3 million metric tons of CO₂ per year (assuming the reference power plant)
Minus 1 Rosenfeld can power an American city of 250,000.

portrait of Rosenfeld

Courtesy Californa Energy Commission.

Arthur H. Rosenfeld

The unit is named for Arthur H. Rosenfeld, a researcher who has been extremely active and effective in energy conservation.

In the article proposing the name and in various contemporaneous press releases, the name of the unit is capitalized. However, if the unit is widely used it seems unlikely that this usage will stick, as it will be influenced by the CGPM's requirement that the first letter of unit names based on surnames be printed in lowercase (e.g., ampere, watt, newton, hertz, curie, fermi, einstein and so on).

1. Jonathan Koomey et al..
Defining a standard metric for electricity savings.
Environmental Research Letters, vol. 5 (2010) 014017.
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/5/1/014017.