GET ENERGETIC!

BLOGPOST, Fri 20 May 2011 13:38, Jeffrey Prins

A question about energy…

Just try to quickly answer the following question: How much are you paying for electricity? (No google please...) Per kilowatt hour (kWh)? Per month? Don't know? Don't worry! Chances are that you'll soon be generating your own and paying yourself! Here's a blog about energy and, hopefully, about getting energised!

Is it relevant?

How much do we pay for energy? Is it relevant? Who cares?!? Can we do anything about it anyway?!? Indeed, many people might just simply say "who cares, as long as it's there!" If you've been to Africa, specifically Mali (like I have), you might wholeheartedly agree. 88% of the people in rural areas in Mali don’t have access to "normal" energy. You might then, correctly, think: Water, energy, etc., it's a public good and it simply has to be there. Or it might be the case that you, like others (me included!), are complaining about the ever-increasing energy bill. Death, taxes… and a higher energy bill, that's all we are certain of, right?

What some statistics are saying…

Curiously, at least in the Netherlands, I've read different, rather puzzling, information about this. About how much we seem to know, or don't know, about energy prices. But also I've read that green energy is really "hot", at least in the Netherlands.

For example: It seems that many people (62%) don't know how much they are paying for energy nor how much energy they use (42%). At least that’s what I've read in the Energy Center Netherlands (ECN) Energy Report 2009. Sorry, but the report says that women and young people seem to know the least….

Okay. Perhaps it's outdated, or I'm not reading it right, because at the same time Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa), when looking at the Dutch energy market, sites that most people (80%) think their energy bill is too high. At the same time the Dutch market for green energy is the biggest in Europe. Or is it green certificates?  Hmmm….

Knowing more = change?

So is it going to help to know more about energy? Will it be useful to know how much we use and how much we pay? Most people DO seem to care about green energy! Energy consumption or energy demand continues to rise. The International Energy Agency tells more. The more money we have, the more we spend on appliances, gadgets and so on and so forth.

We'll keep consuming right?
Even the gadgets to monitor our energy might be helpful to make us more aware, like:

• Quby
• PlugWise
• Google Powermeter
• Onzo
• Wattcher
• Wattson
• Open Peak
• Marvin

But still. It may be interesting for a couple of weeks, and then? Would we look at these gadgets again? And would it change our behavior?

Being in charge…

Energy is probably not interesting until we're in charge. Right now I pay about 22-23 eurocents per kWh (final costs for conventional energy). But it's my job to know. And I'm not sure what other people in other countries are paying…
But imagine if you could generate your own energy for the same price? I've heard that solar panels in sunny Italy are reaching "grid parity" – what you pay for your own solar electricity is the same as what you would pay from a regular utility company.
Or what if you could even reduce you energy use – energy savings! -  to fit how much you produce. Completely independent! No worries about the price hike!

(Sorry, I don't believe any energy company when it tells me I can save money by fixing my energy bill costs for three years – as if they don't know how energy prices are going to develop!)

In charge, some examples…

Indeed, what excites the most are initiatives that empower people to generate their own energy. The sun isn't shining as much as in Italy, but we are getting there. Dutch initiatives are changing our energy landscape:

• WijWillenZon
• ZonVast
• Kies Groen Licht
• Zon-IQ

"We Generate"

Of course I'm a bit biased. We’ve launched our own little Dutch enterprise called "We Generate": It’s 'our' energy company of the future, helping you to be a consumer and producer at the same time. Paying the energy bill to… yourself! But that doesn't matter, that it's our own little company. What matters is that all these various schemes empower us, the consumer, to not just be aware of energy but to actually produce it (and save it)! I hope more, similar schemes follow, to really and truly energise us!

Jeffrey Prins