Amory Lovins

The greatest transformation since the invention of agriculture is now quietly underway—from wasteful to efficient energy use, from burning fuels to harvesting natural energy flows, from fuels to electricity, and from gigantic energy plants to the right size for the job (hence mainly distributed). Led by business for profit, this global shift is driven mainly by markets, which beat politics. Upsets like the Iran war and the AI revolution only strengthen the efficiency-and-renewables case. The biggest surprise is that new design techniques could power the global economy using just one-fifth the current amount of delivered energy—a severalfold larger saving than most experts recognize, creating major stranded-asset risks in energy supply investments. The efficiency-and-renewables revolution can simultaneously solve the problems of oil, climate, nuclear proliferation, energy insecurity, energy poverty, energy injustice, and energy pollution.