Video
Joe Scalise, leader of Bain's Utilities practice in the Americas, discusses how new technologies will affect the energy matrix of the future and investments in traditional sources of power.
Read the transcript below.
JOE SCALISE: I spent the majority of my time in the energy- and power-focused sessions. There were two of them today, both quite interesting. The first one was focused on energy technologies, put on by MIT, a session near and dear to my heart, given where I spent my time looking at things like solar, storage and electric vehicles. The energy and the passion in that group for the work [we're doing] in the potential and developing markets, as well as the developed world, was really exciting.
It was a great juxtaposition with the second session I attended on the future of energy, looking at that sector, and comparing that with the beginnings of the technology of the transformation, and what's going to be required to take the existing energy matrix and transform it with new technologies, in the face of the fact that that the existing energy matrix—old fossil fuels, oil and gas, as some people like to think of it—is still, over our lifetimes, going to require probably another $30 trillion in investment.
So I think trying to adjust our energy matrix to accommodate new technologies and get the most value from them for society, in combination with our existing energy matrix, is one of the bigger challenges we're going to see. And I'm looking forward to the rest of the sessions here today and tomorrow to see perspectives on that.
First published in Januar 2017