Rewiring America AMA (Ask Me Anything)

In a wide-ranging “Ask me Anything” conversation with Rewiring America Co-Founder and electrification expert Saul Griffith, we explored the “anti-inflationary” benefits of electrifying your home, why countries shouldn’t fret when heat pumps and EV sales falter, and what the highest-impact jobs for young people are who want to accelerate the energy transition. 

All new technologies — including those critical to the clean energy transition — follow a non-linear s-shaped adoption curve. 

“There’s a lot of reasons why clean technology adoption slow down and then picks back up,” explained Moe Kabbara, referencing concerns around recent EV dips in Canada and the US. In a typical s-shaped adoption curve, transformative new technologies, from washing machines to telephones, experience slower initial adoption rates, periods of exponential growth, and another slow tail as the last late adopters come on board.  

Griffith agrees that the EV sales slump isn’t indicative of a broader global decline, citing climbing sales in Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. “Bad stories about climate, there are plenty, but if you want to look for the good news story, no matter where you are, [clean technology] adoption is increasing, the penetrations are increasing, the rate of increase is increasing. So we’re accelerating.” 

The Pace of Progress, a new report from the Building Decarbonization Alliance, shows how adoption of electric heat pumps—the leading technology for building decarbonization—will follow that same non-linear s-curve. These early years are critical to determining the pace for uptake for the next two decades, yet Canadian households are not on track to electrify their space heating by 2100, let alone by 2050, says the report. 

Other conversation highlights: 

Powerful energy incumbents are trying to protect $300 trillion in future profits 

“There’s an industry defending $300 trillion in future profits… that’s a lot of motivation to play naughty in the media sphere with misinformation and to try to slow this down with regulations,” says Griffith. “We’ve been hoodwinked by the fossil fuel industry to really rely on negative emissions,” but when you look at how to power our domestic economy, from driving kids to school to cooking dinner, “the answer for zero emissions in nearly every area is electrification.” 

Electrification is “anti-inflationary”. 

“In multiple really big ways, electrification can truly be anti-inflationary,” because of the increasing costs of fossil fuels, compared to the steady energy prices of installed renewables, says Griffith. “In some countries like Australia and New Zealand, we’ve already crossed the investment threshold where you literally can’t spend money fast enough because it just saves the country macroeconomically.” 

Raise your daughters to be electricians: contractors are “the heroes” of the clean energy transition 

Giving credit to the heroes behind the transition, and not just Elon Musk, is a powerful way to increase the cultural value of a workforce that’s going to electrify our economy, says Griffith, citing the importance of “changing that narrative and giving [contractors and tradespeople] a central role in this societal transition.” “Even more important,” he adds, “raise your daughters to be electricians and HVAC installers.”