October 10, 2005, Jude
Long article in The Guardian last week about nuclear resurgence but the final section was interesting for us:
Beaver and lobby away as the scientists and engineers might, it may, in the end, require brilliance from an entirely different direction to make the breakthroughs needed to keep the lights burning and the C02 emissions low over the decades to come. The country could comfortably do away with any pressure to build new nuclear power stations if only we bought and used energy in a smarter way.
What may be required is genius in accounts and marketing rather than nuclear physics or aerodynamics. One of the great failures of Britain's electricity market is that the companies which supply households with electricity compete to sell electricity at the lowest price, rather than competing to power, heat and light our homes at the lowest price. It's as if restaurants competed to stuff customers with the cheapest possible food without either party noticing or caring that, each time, two-thirds of the meal was left on the plate.
"Somehow or other, we've got to find a commercial answer that makes us money and makes our customers' lives better by them consuming less energy," says Skillings. "If I knew the answer, I could go away and collect my Nobel prize right now."
CATEGORY: ENERGY PROJECT
Brilliant site!
The comment made here is very much in line with Green Manufacturing thought. The important question to ask "What are you really selling?", changes the way producers sell or manufacture their product. By changing the focus from selling power, to selling comfort you can initiate a cultural and intellectual paradigm shift in electrical companies.