Tags: Gartner Press Releases

Gartner Says Consumerization of Energy Will Positively Impact Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions

Gartner today advised attendees at a pre-event for the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) inaugural annual meeting in Dalian, China, that the consumerization of energy will positively impact energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Gartner analysts predict that by 2010 climate change regulation will force energy utilities to embrace consumer-driven energy efficiency technology and consumer-deployed renewable sources as a demand-side contribution to carbon emission reduction.

“The combination of climate-change concerns and high energy prices have led to energy consumers – industrial, commercial and residential – becoming more active in managing their consumption efficiency and deploying their own renewable energy generation,” said Kristian Steenstrup, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “This has resulted in the consumerization of energy that encourages the inclusion of consumer-owned energy technology into energy markets.”

Examples of the consumerization of energy include residential solar-panel programs in Germany and micro wind-turbine programs in the U.K. Commercial operations are also pursuing this avenue such as Google’s Googleplex solar-panel project where it launched the largest solar panel installation on a corporate campus in the United States, Wal-Mart’s solar-panel consideration where it is putting solar panels on more than 20 of its stores in California and Hawaii. “This is not about consumers ‘going off the grid’, but about using technology to become an ‘active part of the grid’”, said Mr. Steenstrup.

Read the complete Press Release