Uncategorized

What We Heard You Say…This Week’s Best and Worst Quotes about Energy Efficiency

Oct. 29, 2013

Interesting quotes we heard this week while reporting on energy efficiency. From the Jetsons to the sometimes uneasy relationship between energy efficiency and distributed generation.

Elisa Wood

Interesting quotes about energy efficiency we picked up this week.

Best Warning

Overhyped vision of the smart home “It was almost like the Jetsons: ‘Children who stick their fingers in an outlet will not get electrocuted!’” Larry Zarker, CEO Building Performance Institute, quoting old advertisements that hyped smart homes. Zarker called for today’s industry to focus on realistic solutions in a talk at the National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid.

Best Insight

Hiding in plain sight “Energy efficiency has been called a ‘hidden fuel,’ yet it is hiding in plain sight. Indeed, the degree of global investment in energy efficiency and the resulting energy savings are so massive that they beg the following question: Is energy efficiency not just a hidden fuel but rather the world’s first fuel?” Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, presenting the Energy Efficiency Market Report 2013 at the World Energy Congress in Korea.

Best Insight into the Times

Energy efficiency’s twofer “Really this is kind of a golden time, where for the first time businesses can do the smart thing financially and the best thing for the environment, and it is the same thing.” Matt Lawson, Graybar‘s powersmart energy expert, NRDCFlix

Most Cutting Edge

Getting EE and DG on the same page “I don’t think the utilities are going to be driven to do energy efficiency with respect to addressing the challenge of distributed generation. What I expect to see is maybe a movement more by the regulatory folks to be looking at distributed generation and energy efficiency a bit more holistically. Right now. they are looking at those as two different initiatives.” Tom Hulsevosch, managing director, energy and utility practice, West Monroe Partners, EnergyEfficiencyMarkets.com podcast interview, The Link Between Distributed Generation and Efficiency

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

Twitter: @ElisaWood

LinkedIn: Elisa Wood

Facebook: Microgrids