Putting the Pieces in Play: How We Turn Propane Innovation into Action by Tucker Perkins – President & CEO, Propane Research and Education Council
At the recent WLGA Strategic Innovation Summit, the global propane industry gathered in Tokyo, Japan to set the blueprint for how representatives can best leverage innovation and spur propane adoption in their respective countries. As one would expect, cutting-edge technologies packed with promise were central to the discussion. There was a lot to be excited about.
I left the meeting confident that all the pieces are in place to deepen propane’s positive impact on societies and energy challenges. But like in chess, the pieces don’t move themselves.
I am always impressed by propane’s transformational impact globally. In remote villages across the world, it has liberated women from hours of gathering kindling for cooking and eliminated emissions that were lethal to women and children. Propane is reducing emissions in power generation, road transportation, and maritime operations, creating cleaner communities.
It’s a wonderful story. But if propane is to do its best work in every part of the world, that story must serve as fuel for action through collaboration.
The challenges are enormous; energy demand is surging driven by growing population, expanding economies, and rapid proliferation of data centers. With infrastructure years and billions of dollars away from solving the crisis, the demand for innovative solutions has never been greater. But for an energy solution to be viable, it must be reliable, affordable, abundant, and scalable today.
That’s where propane delivers - American made, grid independent, price stable, on-site power. Propane is dispatchable and versatile, powering equipment across industries including agriculture, commercial and residential construction, ports, and transportation, in addition to providing heat, hot water, cooking, and backup power for homeowners.
In the U.S., we are working to maximise collaboration so that ideas and innovation have a clear runway to action and adoption. The NPGA works with policy makers to ensure a level playing field for propane. OEMs and propane marketers work in tandem to meet customer energy needs. PERC uses industry funds to stimulate innovative research and to provide consumer education.
Across these disparate and sometimes competing constituencies, each player recognises the value in working with the others to achieve a better future for the industry as a whole.
It’s no small task to move all these pieces across the board, but the work is paying off. Through this many-pronged effort, we are seeing progress in convincing decision makers at every level that propane is a necessary solution to even the greatest energy challenges.