“Companies large and small have all made public commitments. The challenge now is how are they going to meet them,” Driggs told the ET Global Business Summit. “And to meet those, there is never going to be one solution. It has to be a combination of energy conservation and energy transition.”
Several existing technologies can come in handy in achieving both conservation and transition, he said. But to achieve conservation, companies need to establish a baseline and deploy digital technology.
“When you think about energy conservation, something companies are really struggling with is to establish your baseline. Today most companies, when they estimate their emissions, it’s done with a lot of assumptions,” Driggs said, adding that there was “no real scoreboard” to measure emissions and improvements. “Let’s use digital technology, which is very much available today. Let’s sensorise our factories and buildings.”
Using a smart algorithm can reduce energy consumption in buildings by 10-25%, he said. Factories may not see as much reduction as buildings but can still get a “high single-digit” reduction in energy consumption, Driggs said. Another “low-hanging area” is reducing methane leakage, he said. The gas has a big impact on the environment and technologies can help easily identify leakage and plug it. Leakage or flaring of natural gas by oil and gas companies has drawn much regulatory attention in the developed world in recent years.
Optimal routing of aircraft or cargo trucks could also offer significant opportunities for energy consumption reduction, Driggs said.
Biofuel is a big opportunity, Driggs said, adding that manufacturing it from a variety of sources, including cooking oil, agriculture waste and algae, and using it for sustainable fuels, would be a significant move.”India is a major producer of ethanol today. But the technology now exists to take that ethanol and produce sustainable aviation fuel or green diesel and this can make a significant impact on the future of those segments and their sustainability impact,” Driggs said.
