Voices

Voices

The story of electricity is complex and global. To tell that story, we interviewed over forty people from around the world. Get to know them here.
Priscilla Atansah| Technical Assistant for Energy Policy, Ministry of Finance, Ghana

"When you give access to electricity, women and girls are the first people to benefit from it."
Ben Heard| Founder & Executive Director, Bright New World

"When you can marriage dense fuel, particularly electricity, with human ingenuity -- we can do nearly anything."
Anibal Jose Torres| Majority Leader, Senate of Puerto Rico

"Electricity, for Puerto Ricans, means life."
Steve Brick| Senior Advisor, Clean Air Task Force

"Electricity is the thing that makes modern life possible."
Jessica Lovering| Director of Energy, Breakthrough Institute

"The idea that we can power the world on 100% renewables is powerful because it's pure and simple, sort of wholesome -- like your grandma's energy."
Michael Shellenberger| Founder & President, Environmental Progress

"I think what makes nuclear special is that it is the only way to lift everybody out of poverty AND solve climate change."
Riad Chedid| Professor of Engineering, American University of Beirut

"We have the situation now where electricity gets disconnected at around nine hours per day in the suburbs."
Richard Garriott| Video Game Pioneer & Entrepreneur

"Wars are fought over profound disparities in access to natural resources. All that goes back to the availability of cheap and plentiful electricity."
Birgitta Jónsdóttir| Co-Founder, Pirate Party

"You have to have access to electricity, because that's a basic. Just like water."
Joyashree Roy| Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University

"When you are absorbed in the dark, darkness absorbs you, too."
Maya Ammar| Model & Architect

"The one reason in Lebanon that we don't have electricity is corruption. Plain and simple."
Sudipta De| Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University

"There's a direct correlation found between those people who are using the conventional biomass for their cooking and their [poor] health."
Roger Pielke, Jr.| Author & Professor

"One thing we can say confidently about the future, is that's there's going to be more demand for electricity."
Carolyn Kissane| Academic Director, Center for Global Affairs NYU

"Oftentimes it is women and girls who bear the responsibility for providing that alternative to reliable access to electricity."
Nader Hajj Shehadeh| Founder & President, Engineers Without Borders, Lebanon

"We can't live without electricity for 12 hours a day, so we have to rely on private generators, and we can't all afford it."
Carol Willis| Founder & Director, Skyscraper Museum

"[In the 20th century] the electrical traction elevator could ferry people from the ground floor, up to the top floor, in less than a minute."
Jesse Ausubel| Director, Program for the Human Environment, Rockefeller University

"Cities, in my view as an environmentalist, are the salvation of nature."
Miguel Colon| Vice President, Model Offset Printing

"There is no economic movement without access to power."
Kristin Matthiasdottir| VP Resource Park, HS Orka

"Electricity means innovation, technology, and higher standards for living people."
Tapas Roy| Former General Manager, West Bengal Power Development

"In the rural area, theft is very common because the low tension line is there. So the people easily hook the electricity for the domestic purpose."
Mariano de Socarraz| Founder & CEO, CorePlus Clinical and Pathological Services

"Modern society is hooked on electricity."
Daniel| Blackmarket Marijuana Grower

"You're probably going to be in more trouble for stealing electricity than you're going to be in trouble for growing weed."
Theresa Knickerbocker| Mayor, Village of Buchanan

"I think people fear nuclear energy because they really don't understand it."
Hussein Mousl| Driver, Lancaster Plaza Hotel

"It's the mafia. They don't want to fix the electricity."
Rehena Jamadar| Resident of Majlishpukur

"If I had electricity when I was young, I would have gone to college."
Arnaldo Castellano| Owner of La Garita Waterfront Bar & Restaurant

"If there's no power, there's no cold beer."
Gisli Katrinarson| Chief Commercial Officer, Advania Data Centers

"Electricity and money are becoming the same thing."
Rosa Ortiz| Resident of Barrio Mambiche Blanco

"If we don't have power, we don't have water."
Carl Liggio| Managing Partner, Pharos Enterprise Intelligence

"Energy is often referred to as the master resource. Electricity is the master of the master resources."
Emily Backus| Sustainability Advisor, City and County of Denver

"Electricity use by the cannabis industry has been increasing sharply over the past several years. The average has been about 34% per year."
Haydee Torres| Resident of Barrio Collores

"Washing clothes is impossible. You have to wash it by hand because of the lack of electricity."
Sanjay Kar Chowdhury| Manager, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation

"People are using wires to put a hook in the wires, and draw the electricity... that is unmetered supply. That is theft."
Antoine Saab| Founder & CEO, E24

"I think people have basic rights: rights for water, rights for electricity."
Wanda Gonzales| Resident of Barrio Collores

"Since I don't have electricity, my life has been completely transformed. My time now depends on the light of day."
Mustafa Baalbaki| Software Engineer, Beirut Electricity

"I'm not fixing the electricity problem here in Lebanon; I'm just trying to help people cope with it."
Salah Honein| Former Lebanese Parliamentarian

"There is some sort of cartel that import diesel to Lebanon... I don't think they would be happy if this business stops."
Iris Ortiz| Resident of Barrio Anton Ruiz

"We used to take [electricity] for granted, because I would turn the light on and move on with my day."
Joseph Al Assad| Faculty of Engineering, Holy Spirit University

"In Lebanon, you need to schedule life depending on electricity."
Jerry Nappi| Senior Manager, Communications for Entergy

"Nuclear fuel is dense, so you can get a lot of energy out of a relatively small amount."
Joseph Cunningham| Author, New York Power

"[The motor] changes the future of electric power. The power customer becomes the most important customer, not the light customer."
Helmut Rauth| Director, Genesis Mining

"The electricity intensity will definitely increase -- because it takes more hash power to mine one Bitcoin."

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