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

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