By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On January 15, 2023
Saul Griffith is an engineer, entrepreneur, inventor, sought-after speaker and popular author. He is a world-class thought leader with a simple message: For a clean energy future, we must electrify everything.
And he does mean everything. Griffith spells this out in his recent book, “Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook For Our Clean Energy Future.” We recommend it. It is chock-full of compelling data—and some stunning observations—that support his case.
The ultimate impact of electrifying everything, coupled with “decarbonizing” the world’s power sources, will be to fight climate change. We must produce zero-emission electricity with solar, wind, hydroelectric generation and, wherever possible, nuclear sources. We can allow for sourcing a relatively minor percentage of our power requirements from biofuel. But there will never be enough biomaterials on Earth to be sustainable.
Griffith never suggests searching the internet for “electrical contractors near me” to begin an effort to totally electrify our homes or workplaces. For our way of thinking, that is a glaring omission. In a book crammed with great perspectives and foresight, he never considers the role ECs could undeniably play in promoting and implementing conversion to an all-electric world. We’ll return to that thought later.