This talk will explore key issues in catalyzing energy efficiency investments.  In the three decades since the energy crises of the 1970s we’ve learned a great deal about the potential for energy efficiency and the means to deliver it cost effectively and reliably.  Back then, many analysts still held to the now discredited “ironclad link” between energy use and economic activity, which implied that any reduction in energy use would make our society less wealthy.

Now we know that there are many different ways to produce a dollar of GDP using current technologies, some energy efficient and others not.  We know that the available efficiency resources are enormous and largely untapped.  We know that markets, while generally the best way to provide goods and services, can fail in ways that can be fixed by clever policy choices and business incentives, resulting in lower energy use and a total cost to society (including the implementation costs of those efficiency policies and programs) that is less than that of preserving the status quo.  

We also know that making efficiency profitable for business is one of the fastest ways to make it happen, although sometimes incentives, government mandates, and other programs are required.   Finally, we know that increasing energy efficiency is a question of innovation, not just in technology but also in institutional arrangements and incentives, and if we’re fast and smart about it, that innovation can result in direct economic savings to our economy and products and services that we can sell overseas, generating even more economic activity right here in the U.S.

Recommended Readings

• U.S. Building-Sector Energy Efficiency Potential - Environmental Energy Technologies Division of LBNL; and
• Winning the Oil End Game - Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security 

Course Recommendations - recommended coursework for Yale students interested in this field:

• MGT 563 - Energy Systems Analysis;
• MGT 567 - The Environment and the Marketplace;
• MGT 685 - Private Investment and the Environment;
• MGT 820 - Energy Markets Strategy;
• FES 80030 - Forecasting Energy Futures: Pitfalls and Prospects;
• FES 86059 - Cities and Sustainability in the Developing World;
• ENVE 101 - Energy, Engines, and the Environment;
• LAW 20023 - Community and Economic Development;
• LAW 20435 - Advanced Community and Economic Development; and
• LAW 20526 - Green Energy Policy.

Event Documents

Webinar

Presentation

This event is organized in collaboration with the School of Management and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Energy Clubs with outreach partners ACORE, Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund, and New England Clean Energy Council.

Funding for the Carbon Finance Speaker Series "MegaWatts on Main Street" was made possible by a generous grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.