New trends, changing dynamics: student observations.

A number of issues such as climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy prices have dominated debates on energy. Students from the Energy and Environment Concentration of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University had summer internships in various sectors of the energy industry. They shared their observations on emerging trends in the energy industry with the Journal.

FIVE DRIVERS OF CHANGE IN ENERGY POLICIES

Ajith Das: Two decades ago, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, introduced by the U.S. Green Building Council, set a precedent for green building practices in the United States. Fast-forward to today, the energy market has undergone tremendous changes and is still evolving. Five major drivers of change are listed below.

Policies: The year 2014 was a landmark year in terms of policies rolled out at the city, state and federal level to reduce energy consumption and thereby carbon emissions. Policies included stimulating investments, encouraging knowledge sharing and setting higher statutory requirements on efficiency of end user devices--to name a few. Measurement of policy impact is essential to understanding which polices are more effective. However, the overlapping nature of policy implementation has made it difficult to evaluate individual policy effects.

Technology: Transformative technologies are one of the main drivers of change in the energy efficiency market. Learning curves of these technologies are quite steep, contributing to increased demand and production. Many new technologies (including Solar Photo-Voltaic, LEDs etc.) that were not economically viable five years ago make a lot more financial sense today.

Data: Progress in technology and policies have called for a complementary growth of data acquisition. Benchmarking of energy usage is the first step towards any energy saving measure, without which it will be impossible to quantify the savings. Ultra-modern Building Automation Systems (BAS) with high-resolution feedback and device level monitoring have equipped end users to monitor and control for operational inefficiencies.

Investments: Even though there has been a modest improvement in the levels of investment in the last couple of years, financing still remains the biggest barrier for the energy efficiency market. Government efforts to stimulate investments through initiatives like Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) funds have been widely well received. However, without significant growth in investments, the industry objectives of tapping "high hanging fruit" will be rendered inconceivable.

People: None of the above trends would have been possible if not for the increased awareness among people. In the residential and industrial sector there have been widespread behavioral changes focusing on the shift towards sustainable green models. Most of the industrial firms have energy teams and even...