Advanced Energy Perspectives

ExxonMobil issued its Outlook for Energy this week, predicting that global energy demand would rise 35 percent from 2010 to 2040 due to steady growth in countries now lacking electricity, appliances, and transport. “People want a warm home, a refrigerator, a TV, someday a car, and a cellphone,” William Colton, ExxonMobil’s vice president for corporate strategic planning, told the Associated Press. That means dramatic growth, but there’s more, buried in the fine print of the ExxonMobil press release: “Without gains in efficiency, global energy demand could have risen by more than 100 percent.” In other words, it will take huge growth in advanced energy technologies to keep the increase in energy consumption down to 35 percent by 2040. That makes the advanced energy opportunity even greater.

At regulated utilities across the United States, energy efficiency efforts are driving down energy usage and saving money for ratepayers. The Consortium for Energy Efficiency estimated that utilities spent $4.5 billion on these programs in 2011, resulting in residential electricity savings of over 14 TWh per year, equivalent to the consumption of 1.25 million U.S. homes. These savings have been achieved primarily by providing incentives for one-time technology investments, such as more efficient appliances or better windows, lighting and HVAC systems. But technology is not the only way to save energy.

The 1988 Baltimore Orioles had a bad season – the worst losing streak in baseball history – when they chalked up 21 losses before winning a game.  Opponents of advanced energy surpassed this record, going 0-26 in 2013 for bills introduced to roll back or eliminate renewable and energy efficiency standards. The latest loss took place in Ohio, just this month – which means another win for advanced energy. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently developing its first greenhouse gas performance standards for both new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. AEE believes these new GHG standards could increase opportunities for both supply- and demand-side advanced energy technologies to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, depending on the ultimate regulatory design.

This is the fourth of five blog posts adapted from the new book “Zero Hour: Time to Build the Clean Power Platform,” by Reed E. Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and Board Member of the Advanced Energy Economy Institute. Read all the posts here.

Buy the book: Amazon | Google | Kobo | Barnes and Noble | EbookMall

For the new power platform to leap from status quo-bound impossibility to consumer-driven inevitability, as the communications platform did, we need to avoid imposing the costs of transition on the wrong people, and present the future as it is: an opportunity, not a sacrifice.  No more doom and gloom.