Voices - Juice

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.
"When you give access to electricity, women and girls are the first people to benefit from it."
Priscilla Atansah| Technical Assistant for Energy Policy, Ministry of Finance, Ghana
"When you can marriage dense fuel, particularly electricity, with human ingenuity -- we can do nearly anything."
Ben Heard| Founder & Executive Director, Bright New World
"Electricity, for Puerto Ricans, means life."
Anibal Jose Torres| Majority Leader, Senate of Puerto Rico
"Electricity is the thing that makes modern life possible."
Steve Brick| Senior Advisor, Clean Air Task Force
"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."
Jessica Lovering| Director of Energy, Breakthrough Institute
"I think what makes nuclear special is that it is the only way to lift everybody out of poverty AND solve climate change."
Michael Shellenberger| Founder & President, Environmental Progress
"We have the situation now where electricity gets disconnected at around nine hours per day in the suburbs."
Riad Chedid| Professor of Engineering, American University of Beirut
"Wars are fought over profound disparities in access to natural resources. All that goes back to the availability of cheap and plentiful electricity."
Richard Garriott| Video Game Pioneer & Entrepreneur
"You have to have access to electricity, because that's a basic. Just like water."
Birgitta Jónsdóttir| Co-Founder, Pirate Party
"When you are absorbed in the dark, darkness absorbs you, too."
Joyashree Roy| Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University
"The one reason in Lebanon that we don't have electricity is corruption. Plain and simple."
Maya Ammar| Model & Architect
"There's a direct correlation found between those people who are using the conventional biomass for their cooking and their [poor] health."
Sudipta De| Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University
"One thing we can say confidently about the future, is that's there's going to be more demand for electricity."
Roger Pielke, Jr.| Author & Professor
"Oftentimes it is women and girls who bear the responsibility for providing that alternative to reliable access to electricity."
Carolyn Kissane| Academic Director, Center for Global Affairs NYU
"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."
Nader Hajj Shehadeh| Founder & President, Engineers Without Borders, Lebanon
"[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."
Carol Willis| Founder & Director, Skyscraper Museum
"Cities, in my view as an environmentalist, are the salvation of nature."
Jesse Ausubel| Director, Program for the Human Environment, Rockefeller University
"There is no economic movement without access to power."
Miguel Colon| Vice President, Model Offset Printing
"Electricity means innovation, technology, and higher standards for living people."
Kristin Matthiasdottir| VP Resource Park, HS Orka
"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."
Tapas Roy| Former General Manager, West Bengal Power Development
"Modern society is hooked on electricity."
Mariano de Socarraz| Founder & CEO, CorePlus Clinical and Pathological Services
"You're probably going to be in more trouble for stealing electricity than you're going to be in trouble for growing weed."
Daniel| Blackmarket Marijuana Grower
"I think people fear nuclear energy because they really don't understand it."
Theresa Knickerbocker| Mayor, Village of Buchanan
"It's the mafia. They don't want to fix the electricity."
Hussein Mousl| Driver, Lancaster Plaza Hotel
"If I had electricity when I was young, I would have gone to college."
Rehena Jamadar| Resident of Majlishpukur
"If there's no power, there's no cold beer."
Arnaldo Castellano| Owner of La Garita Waterfront Bar & Restaurant
"Electricity and money are becoming the same thing."
Gisli Katrinarson| Chief Commercial Officer, Advania Data Centers
"If we don't have power, we don't have water."
Rosa Ortiz| Resident of Barrio Mambiche Blanco
"Energy is often referred to as the master resource. Electricity is the master of the master resources."
Carl Liggio| Managing Partner, Pharos Enterprise Intelligence
"Electricity use by the cannabis industry has been increasing sharply over the past several years. The average has been about 34% per year."
Emily Backus| Sustainability Advisor, City and County of Denver
"Washing clothes is impossible. You have to wash it by hand because of the lack of electricity."
Haydee Torres| Resident of Barrio Collores
"People are using wires to put a hook in the wires, and draw the electricity... that is unmetered supply. That is theft."
Sanjay Kar Chowdhury| Manager, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation
"I think people have basic rights: rights for water, rights for electricity."
Antoine Saab| Founder & CEO, E24
"Since I don't have electricity, my life has been completely transformed. My time now depends on the light of day."
Wanda Gonzales| Resident of Barrio Collores
"I'm not fixing the electricity problem here in Lebanon; I'm just trying to help people cope with it."
Mustafa Baalbaki| Software Engineer, Beirut Electricity
"There is some sort of cartel that import diesel to Lebanon... I don't think they would be happy if this business stops."
Salah Honein| Former Lebanese Parliamentarian
"We used to take [electricity] for granted, because I would turn the light on and move on with my day."
Iris Ortiz| Resident of Barrio Anton Ruiz
"In Lebanon, you need to schedule life depending on electricity."
Joseph Al Assad| Faculty of Engineering, Holy Spirit University
"Nuclear fuel is dense, so you can get a lot of energy out of a relatively small amount."
Jerry Nappi| Senior Manager, Communications for Entergy
"[The motor] changes the future of electric power. The power customer becomes the most important customer, not the light customer."
Joseph Cunningham| Author, New York Power
"The electricity intensity will definitely increase -- because it takes more hash power to mine one Bitcoin."
Helmut Rauth| Director, Genesis Mining