Yesterday, McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm, released a report indicating that the US could reduce energy use by approximately 23% by 2020, while also saving $1.2 trillion in energy costs, through greater investment in energy efficiency measures. In taking these measures, the country would also avoid 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions every year, which according to McKinsey, is equal to “taking the entire US fleet of passenger vehicles and light trucks off the roads.”The good news: McKinsey focused only on non-transportation uses of energy, which means current efforts at developing plug-in hybrids and electric cars would only improve our nation's energy effectiveness even more!
The bad news: McKinsey’s study indicates $520 billion of upfront investment would be needed to achieve the efficiencies described…kind of a large number!
Nevertheless, I am very excited by this report. A lot of buzz around alt-energy tends to focus on the supply side: solar, wind, biofuels, and the like. I think some of the more interesting—albeit less sexy—aspects of alt-energy are on the energy efficiency side of things, and encouraging corporations and households to make investments and change behaviors that impact their overall energy consumption.
In the coming decade, I see the supply side being driven by continued technological innovation, while the demand side being focused more on customer experience and business model-type innovations.
1 comments:
"In the coming decade, I see the supply side being driven by continued technological innovation, while the demand side being focused more on customer experience and business model-type innovations."
Preach it and pass the plate! Yup. That's exactly what's going to happen, I think.
Great post.
But who doesn't want sexy? I need some sexy energy. Ha.
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