Talking solar – Dallas style

 Now this is clever. Get the actor most associated with oil to front an ad campaign for solar energy.

J.R.Ewing

Launching last week, SolarWorld make quite a splash with an ad fronted by Mr Oil Baron himself, J.R. Ewing. The ad campaign, with Larry Hagman’s most famous alter ego, has proved a coverage generating hit getting a largely positive and amused response to his perceived u-turn. http://tinyurl.com/33rxxa7

The knowing nod to the bygone days of ‘glamorous’ oil  made me think how hard it actually is for most big energy companies to reconcile the traditional parts of their energy business with the new energy side.

We should be celebrating investment in the world of solar energy and I find it extremely rewarding to work with companies who can communicate positive achievements in renewables. However, the hard fact is that on their own renewables don’t yet provide the solution to all our energy needs. Whilst it would be great to decrease our dependance on the traditional energy sector and completely embrace solar, wind, geothermal etc. etc. we do have to accept that energy companies need to provide energy for today as well as tomorrow. Sadly, renewables don’t yet have all the solutions.

Perhaps instead we should be doing more about our own energy consumption habits so that we can be in a better position to deliver the energy we need to tomorrow.

Perhaps.

It would be good though to know what J.R. has to say about that.