Jim Rogers, Chairman, President, & CEO of Duke Energy, spoke on the potential for new demand-side energy technologies at the IEE’s Powering the People event in March 2013. He highlighted Pulse Energy as a company that will fundamentally change the future of energy productivity.
See below for an transcript or watch the full 65-minute session here.
On the demand side, with improved, tougher, more stringent appliance standards, building standards, lighting standards, you already see the demand start to fall. And actually, I’m going to make a provocative statement. In the 1960s for every 1% growth in GDP, there was a 5% growth in the demand for electricity. In the 90s for every 1% growth in GDP there was a 1% growth in the demand for electricity. Today, it’s roughly 0.4% growth in electricity for every 1% growth in GDP. I envision a period in the near term where there is a decoupling in the growth of GDP and the growth in the demand for electricity. That’s even assuming electric cars and greater electrification of our economy, but because of the technologies that are evolving to give us productivity gains in the use of electricity.
Just walk back through that hallway and look at the different technologies, whether it’s Pulse Energy, or ThinkEco, or EnerNOC. The CTO of our company has looked at over 700 technologies, and these are the ones which will make some fundamental changes.
March 21, 2013 | Jim Rogers, Chairman, President, & CEO of Duke Energy, speaking at the IEE’s Powering the People