Clean Technology leaders to discuss Energy Efficiency hot topics
May 19th, 2009 by 
Clean technology and energy efficiency leaders from Google, the California Public Utilities Commission, McKinsey, the DOE, Kleiner Perkins, and many other green tech folks, will get together on May 20-21 at the inaugural Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. The event is organized by UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency and will explore the pipeline of new efficiency technologies as well as the current business, economic, and policy landscape and the obstacles and opportunities it presents. Preregistration has closed, but you can attend by registering at Corwin Pavilion at UC Santa Barbara, where the event is taking place.
If you can’t participate in person, you still have the chance to attend part of the program: There will be a live Webcast of a town hall meeting event on Thursday, May 21 at 11:00 am PDT (2:00 pm EDT). The 75-minute interactive panel discussion “Policy and Technology: Conflict or Synergy?” will feature:
- Randy Komisar, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- Arun Majumdar, director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- J. Michael McQuade, senior vice president for science and technology at United Technologies
The event will be moderated by Forrest Sawyer, Emmy Award-winning former ABC, NBC and MSNBC news anchor. You can attend live at http://iee.ucsb.edu/sbsee
Submit your questions for the panelists:
The Institute for Energy Efficiency invites you to submit your questions for the panelists by writing to whitney (at) iee.ucsb.edu. Forrest Sawyer will read the names, affiliations, and locations of selected submitters.
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There was a smaller local symposium and panel discussion on this topic on Tuesday May 19 hosted by PG%E in their San Francisco offices and sponsored by the Clean Tech Open. The attendees appeared to be a mix of entrepreneurs (many from the Clean Tech Open), PG&E staff, people looking to network and find work, and a bevy of PR, Marketing, VCs, Angels.
The emphasis was on how to make energy efficiency “sexy” as it tends to hover in the shadow of renewable energy. But there is big money in using less energy, so it deserves attention after so many years (8) of being left out in the cold.
One of the panelists described it like this:
“Renewable energy, solar and the rest are like fad diets. Everyone is interested in the latest hot thing. Energy Efficiency ideas are like exercising. No one notices you, and it’s hard work.
The Keynote speaker, Ted Howes from IDEO emphasized the need to get people “into” your idea. Summarizing, he recommends efficiency start-ups to get to the end user level and:
1) Build on what people care about.
2) Create a compelling experience (to gain brand value.)
3) Support positive behavior change by creating the right feedback for the customer.
Overall, it was a pretty energetic session. It was attended by ~150-200.
chad
Great summary, and great quote – “Renewable energy, solar and the rest are like fad diets. Everyone is interested in the latest hot thing. Energy Efficiency ideas are like exercising. No one notices you, and it’s hard work.”
Thanks! Very useful!