Disruptive Energy Futures

Abstract: Oil suppliers have more unsellable than unburnable oil: they are more at risk from competition than from climate regulation. Electricity suppliers too face a swarm of disruptors that will transform their business beyond recognition. As these two vast industries merge and as insurgents in both challenge incumbents, almost everything we thought we knew about energy is ripe for rapid and profound change.

Bio: Physicist Amory Lovins (1947) is cofounder and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute; energy advisor to major firms and governments in 65+ countries for 40+ years; author of 31 books and 600+ papers; and designer of superefficient buildings, factories, and vehicles. He received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, 12 honorary doctorates, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood (“alternative Nobel”), National Design, and World Technology Awards, and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (awarded by the President of Germany). A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary US architect, and Swedish engineering academician, he’s taught at ten universities, most recently Stanford’s Engineering School and the Naval Postgraduate School. He’s a member of the U.S. National Petroleum Council and and member of the Chief of Naval Operations’ Advisory Board. Time has named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people; Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.