Kingdom must curb its energy appetite: Banker

Gulf One Investment Bank founder and CEO Nahed M. Taher made the remarks to the Society of Petroleum Engineers and cautioned them about the consequences about Saudi Arabia’s current economic dependency on oil for half of its nominal gross domestic product.

“Oil production is like a sleeping pill, allowing the rest of the domestic economy to relax because the money is coming in,” she said, “but it is not doing any good for the private sector or for the creation of jobs.”

Taher warned that the inflow of cash from high oil prices does not mean more money but rather higher inflation, less purchasing power and more expensive imports into the Kingdom.

At the same time, with the fluctuation of oil market comes the fluctuation of the economy.

This, she said speaking on behalf of fellow bankers and economists, makes it impossible to invest in a long-term economic future.

In terms of energy consumption, the region is its own worst enemy, Taher said, voicing the concerns of Saudi Aramco President and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih who recently stated that current oil consumption would lead to a 40 percent increase in global demand by 2030.

Taher blames low energy, fuel and electricity prices in the Kingdom for encouraging inefficient energy consumption.

“Saudi Arabia’s energy productivity lags behind major economies in the world in terms of GDP per consumption of energy,” she said.

“We need to be more efficient in utilizing our energy.”

She said the two major domestic consumers of oil are the power and desalination industries; however, globally both industries are shifting to alternative energy forms that are both bankable and environmentally friendly.

To increase economic stability, reel in more long-term GDP and encourage job creation, Taher emphasized the need to follow global trends in terms of energy efficiency and a greater investment in renewable energy.

She commended Saudi Aramco for advancing that thinking as it coordinates many of its operations with energy-saving methods; however, a significant step toward renewable energy has yet to take place in the region.

Taher said low domestic energy tariffs and a lack of environmental awareness contribute to the region’s lag.

She said the lack of financial incentives and collaborative efforts to handle environmental concerns coupled with the lack of specialization in needed fields also separate the region from prevailing global energy trends.

Improve Gas Mileage Pill | Fuel Savings Devices

By John D. Sutter

Information is power, but makes the information – by itself – actually make people change their behavior?

Not very often, said BJ Fogg, director of the Laboratory Persuasive Technology, Stanford University.

"For all the talk and publicity about the life of an environmentally friendly way, very few people are seeing the information and then change their behavior based on that information, "he said." They have many other things to worry about their life that are more urgent than 'Let me find a way to stop driving to work. ""

So is all hope lost? Not exactly. A host of devices and Web applications aimed basically to blame and peer pressure us to be better people – in spurts.

These "persuasive technologies" have several objectives: Some people want to move more so they can lose weight (see these applications health), while others are designed to promote energy efficiency through the pressure of neighboring pairs.

The best examples, Fogg said, push people to do something simple that they wish they were doing anyway.

Here are five companies persuasive technology and products to keep an eye on. This list is based largely on interviews with Fogg and the University of Washington Ph.D. candidate Jon Froehlich, who wrote an article entitled "Design Eco-Technology Center, "and that is designing a prototype system to track and display the water consumption in the home.

OPOWER

Do you think I do not care what their neighbors are doing? OPOWER, a software company that promotes energy efficiency in the home, gambling it does.

Instead of showing a power bill normal OPOWER energy data collected from the house and shows a table comparing the use of energy to the its neighbors as a whole. Such exposure causes 60 to 80 percent of people change their behavior of energy, the company said.

The company put a "smiley face" in the readings of power consumption of the people who use relatively less energy than their neighbors.

The service is available through more than 30 utilities, and users can obtain their energy reports online through smart phones or display units at home. About 1.5 million people use the service now, said Ogi Kavazovic, a spokesman OPOWER.

"If we take this country – and there's no reason you can not – can take 3 million homes outside the network and have as much impact as renewables, all [Energy] sector, "he said.

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