TERI SRC organised a guest lecture session on 11 July 2014, Friday, by American consultant experimental physicist and 1993 MacArthur Fellow, Mr Amory B. Lovins.The lecture session, titled "Reinventing Fire" describes a scenario of United States in 2050 that has an economy of almost 2.6 times the present day.In order to sustain the economy, no oil, coal, or nuclear energy is required and uses one-third less natural gas to operate it. The overall sustainable measures shall emit 82-86% less fossil carbon and will cost $5 trillion less on economy. The overall scenario will be based on and will be led by business for profit. The economy will be integrating all four energy-using sectors, i.e. transport, buildings, industry, and electricity and four kinds of innovation i.e. technology, policy, design, and strategy. This will yield tripled efficiency, often with expanding returns which will be based on integrative design process like inclusion of 74% total renewable supply, 80%-renewable, half-distributed generation and highly resilient electric grid. Mr Lovins drew analogy with situations in India and its possibility of replication.

Mr Lovins emphasized on having system perspective while dealing with energy issues. He explained this with example of cars where he said that with every unit of energy saved at wheel by reducing weight or drag, seven units of energy will be saved as input in fuel. He also showed how energy consumption in buildings can be reduced by having such systems perspective approach. He stressed that it is always better to build right system in the first place than to modify it later. He suggested that growing countries like India, where energy systems are still building up, should be focusing on getting efficient energy system in place.

The lecture session was attended by professionals from building industry like architect, developers, policy makers, consultants and academia. The lecture session was much appreciated by the all attendees.