{"id":1065,"date":"2011-05-13T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:46:26","slug":"clean-energy-getting-past-cute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/05\/13\/clean-energy-getting-past-cute\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean Energy: Getting Past Cute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: Wired Business Conference<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did Bill Gates just call the solar panels on my house cute?\u00a0 \u201cIf you\u2019re interested in cuteness, the stuff in the home is the place to go” was the line most often quoted from his talk at the Wired Business Conference<\/a> in New York City.\u00a0 Headlines declared that Bill Gates thinks clean energy is ‘cute’ and Gates seemed to suggest that people who were serious about energy should be looking to innovation in nuclear and other technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That set off a firestorm of responses among clean energy advocates who point out, correctly, that the cost of renewables is coming down, the clean energy market is growing, and many countries are leaping ahead of the US in terms of public investment and incentives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a UN report released May 9<\/a>, renewable resources are plentiful and could provide as much as 77% of the worlds\u2019 energy by 2050. \u00a0According to the report, renewable energy investments globally could be in the trillions of dollars by 2030.\u00a0 The brake, according to the UN, is not technology.\u00a0 It\u2019s governance and policy that stand in the way. \u00a0To get beyond cute, we need advances in policy that create an energy market friendly not just to fossil fuels but to renewables too.<\/p>\n

But what does it mean for policy to support clean energy?\u00a0 A couple of weeks ago, Deutsche Bank released a report<\/a> that says: \u201cthere has been a very substantial growth in [clean energy] investment in China, and something of a shift away from Europe and the US as the centers of clean energy investing.\u201d\u00a0 The implication is that America is being left behind.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the kicker.\u00a0 Deutsche Bank then says: \u201cclean energy private<\/em><\/strong> investment is still dominated by the US.\u201d\u00a0 To me, that\u2019s America\u2019s ticket to leadership in the trillion-dollar market of the future.\u00a0 Create the rules of the game that allow clean energy to compete and innovation has a shot at taking clean energy well past cute, all the way to super-model status.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s rules of the game make it hard to plug renewables into the grid on parity with fossil fuel sources.\u00a0 Buildings can waste nearly half of their energy \u2013 yet utilities aren\u2019t rewarded for \u201cbuying\u201d efficiency.\u00a0 We can produce electric cars that cost less than three cents a mile to drive (compared to more than 13 cents for a gasoline-powered car), but where do we plug them in?\u00a0 How many households and businesses can easily figure out their energy run rate \u2013 and the most cost-effective steps to cut bills?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t there be an iPhone app for that?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to take private investment in clean energy to scale.\u00a0 For that to happen, government has to rewrite the rules of the game so that:<\/p>\n