ABSTRACT
The planned economies were, in principle, engineered for energy efficiency. Soviet apartments always offered less than half the living area of United States homes. Poland's demand profile in the buildings sector is fairly typical for the region. Energy use in residential and commercial buildings in the late 1990s totaled just under one-fifth of national energy demand, a much lower share than in the west. Industry was structured for a heavy industry base: metallurgy defense materiel, basic chemicals. The largest energy-consuming industrial sectors were iron and steel, chemicals, cement, and aluminum. Before the end of the Cold War, mass transit was the dominant personal transportation mode in the planned economies, and passenger cars were very limited in number. This acceleration was most evident in the expensive imported luxury cars, but was also seen in Russian-made automobiles and imported used cars. Financing in the 1990s was a big hurdle for transition economy energy efficiency.
