my personal opinion, page-6

Lovesilver,

Decentralized power and better efficiency will help reduce demand for centralised power. This means less demand for resources such as coal. So even though production may not fall, it will at least stabilise thus extending mine life. As demand for coal and oil in other sectors of the economy reduces, due to any number of factors, for example technological advances, or more people driving a prius, then more oil will be available to the resource sector and will be able to pick up the slack as it were so that overall demand remains the same.