Columnists: Hans Nilsson, Fourfact

Published on: 8 Jul 2019

"Mr Nilsson, you don’t understand. We need more power - not less!"

I had given my best effort to show how economising the available energy resources and help the country with first-aid and take steps out of a dire situation with black-outs. Emergencies which I found was to a great extent depending on obvious waste of energy for purposes that could easily be either dispensed with, rescheduled or replaced with simple but more efficient technologies.

I was sent by an aid organisation and the response with the words above was that of an assistant to the energy minister in the receiving country. I had obviously not made my case well enough and his words are still ringing in my ears after more than 40 years. In his mind the problem was to find more power to ease their suffering. Energy efficiency was not seen as a solution, not even in the short term, that he could accept (or understand).

But the attitude of this assistant seems to be all too common even today. Read Hans Nilsson's column: the sound of silence. Maybe we have to reflect on this and blame ourselves? It is so obvious now that we must find new ways to communicate our message! Not by arguing and convincing but by changing our language!

In a famous Swedish poem [1] a person is praised because he was able to speak to common men using their simple language but also to learned men using Latin. Maybe that is our problem - we are not able to speak to the minds and hearts of common people (that includes politicians) but only to learned people that understands the complexity of energy efficiency and systems. Read Hans Nilsson's column: efficiency is not difficult.?

[1] Fridolin by Erik Axel Karlfeldt.

The views expressed in this column are those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the views of eceee or any of its members.

Other columns by Hans Nilsson