Snowmass, CO - The Colorado Renewable Energy Society today presents its Larson-Notari Award for 2010 to RMI Chairman and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins.
About CRES Larson-Notari Award
CRES has presented the Larson-Notari Award since 2005 in an annual effort to recognize Coloradans for their distinguished service and exemplary contributions to the field of renewable energy. The award is named after Ronal Larson, PhD, and Paul Notari, two original staff members at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in Golden, Colorado. They co-founded CRES as the Colorado chapter of the American Solar Energy Society, and continue to volunteer for CRES to this day.
CRES will officially present this award to Amory Lovins at the Saturday Dinner of the 2010 Colorado Renewable Energy Conference, June 19 in Montrose. Mr. Lovins will give a brief acceptance speech, and there will also be some time for Q&A.
About Amory Lovins
Few people have done as much to advance the important discussions about energy and resource efficiency in modern society as Amory B. Lovins, a consultant and experimental physicist based in Snowmass, Colorado. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1993, and has been active at the nexus of energy, resources, environment, development, and security in more than 50 countries for 35 years. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on energy—especially its efficient use and sustainable supply—and a fertile innovator of integrative design.
In 1976, Amory upended energy thinking by asking why customers want energy (e.g., for hot showers and cold beer), then suggesting they seek it in the right amount, quality, source, and scale to do each task in the cheapest way. This “end-use/least-cost” approach offers foresight into efficient market outcomes, and enormously reduces waste, cost, risk, pollution, depletion, vulnerability, poverty, and conflict.
In 1982, Amory and Hunter Lovins founded Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) to extend this approach to real-estate development, transportation, climate protection, community and global economic development, security, engineering design, and other areas. But Amory and RMl's core efforts have focused on energy: electric utilities, vehicle efficiency, green buildings, and energy- and resource efficient business practices. Amory also chose to create an extremely energy- and resource-efficient building as their base. Today, RMI’s main building in Snowmass remains among the world's most energy-efficient, saving 99 percent of space- and water-heating energy, ~90 percent of household electricity (the rest is solar generated), and 50 percent of water, all with a 10-month payback in 1984.
Some of Amory’s many other achievements include developing many of the conceptual & technical ideas for the now-multi-billion-dollar "negawatt" (electric end-use efficiency) industry, design of the Hypercar (a 99-mpg SUV boasting ultra-light construction, low-drag design, and hybrid-electric drive), and leading the formulation of the first comprehensive and profitable synthesis of how to eliminate U.S. oil dependence entitled Winning The Oil Endgame.
Far from resting on his laurels, Amory’s current project is Reinventing Fire. As Amory himself describes it: “Reinventing Fire is a ‘grand synthesis’ that will systematically combine decades of intellectual capital, both ours and others’, into a practical map of the road beyond fossil fuels—then help the world head down that road with deliberate speed; Integrating the latest developments that make getting off oil and coal even more attractive than we thought five years ago, Reinventing Fire weaves together a resilient, multi-layered web of connected, efficient, renewable replacements for fossil fuel.”
About CRES Larson-Notari Award
CRES has presented the Larson-Notari Award since 2005 in an annual effort to recognize Coloradans for their distinguished service and exemplary contributions to the field of renewable energy. The award is named after Ronal Larson, PhD, and Paul Notari, two original staff members at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in Golden, Colorado. They co-founded CRES as the Colorado chapter of the American Solar Energy Society, and continue to volunteer for CRES to this day.
CRES will officially present this award to Amory Lovins at the Saturday Dinner of the 2010 Colorado Renewable Energy Conference, June 19 in Montrose. Mr. Lovins will give a brief acceptance speech, and there will also be some time for Q&A.
About Amory Lovins
Few people have done as much to advance the important discussions about energy and resource efficiency in modern society as Amory B. Lovins, a consultant and experimental physicist based in Snowmass, Colorado. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1993, and has been active at the nexus of energy, resources, environment, development, and security in more than 50 countries for 35 years. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on energy—especially its efficient use and sustainable supply—and a fertile innovator of integrative design.
In 1976, Amory upended energy thinking by asking why customers want energy (e.g., for hot showers and cold beer), then suggesting they seek it in the right amount, quality, source, and scale to do each task in the cheapest way. This “end-use/least-cost” approach offers foresight into efficient market outcomes, and enormously reduces waste, cost, risk, pollution, depletion, vulnerability, poverty, and conflict.
In 1982, Amory and Hunter Lovins founded Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) to extend this approach to real-estate development, transportation, climate protection, community and global economic development, security, engineering design, and other areas. But Amory and RMl's core efforts have focused on energy: electric utilities, vehicle efficiency, green buildings, and energy- and resource efficient business practices. Amory also chose to create an extremely energy- and resource-efficient building as their base. Today, RMI’s main building in Snowmass remains among the world's most energy-efficient, saving 99 percent of space- and water-heating energy, ~90 percent of household electricity (the rest is solar generated), and 50 percent of water, all with a 10-month payback in 1984.
Some of Amory’s many other achievements include developing many of the conceptual & technical ideas for the now-multi-billion-dollar "negawatt" (electric end-use efficiency) industry, design of the Hypercar (a 99-mpg SUV boasting ultra-light construction, low-drag design, and hybrid-electric drive), and leading the formulation of the first comprehensive and profitable synthesis of how to eliminate U.S. oil dependence entitled Winning The Oil Endgame.
Far from resting on his laurels, Amory’s current project is Reinventing Fire. As Amory himself describes it: “Reinventing Fire is a ‘grand synthesis’ that will systematically combine decades of intellectual capital, both ours and others’, into a practical map of the road beyond fossil fuels—then help the world head down that road with deliberate speed; Integrating the latest developments that make getting off oil and coal even more attractive than we thought five years ago, Reinventing Fire weaves together a resilient, multi-layered web of connected, efficient, renewable replacements for fossil fuel.”