In this piece, I will attempt to summarize and paraphrase a comprehensive and detailed report, The Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation: The Hydrogen Factor, from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). For a full understanding, the reader is urged to study the report in full. Based on two surveys, the … [continued]
The United Mine Workers of America, the country’s largest coal miners’ union, will support a “true energy transition” away from coal and fossil fuels that includes jobs for “anybody that loses their job because of a transition in this country,” Cecil Roberts, the UMWA president, said Monday. The union’s support, … [continued]
The shift to a low-carbon future is turning the economy inside out. Policy has a crucial role to play, but ultimately it is businesses that will make the energy transition happen. In Energiewende home country Germany, many startups are at the forefront of transformation by bringing novel business ideas to market and by snatching market share from incumbents in sectors such as renewables, heating, or mobility.
In Consumers, prosumers, prosumagers – How service innovations will disrupt the utility business model, Fereidoon Sioshansi helps readers grasp the spirit of the times, the importance of the stakes and the uncertainty of the outcomes. The 19 essays, written by experts in their respective fields, in this 550-page book, are divided into three parts.
Everything — 9 to 5 jobs, flat rate energy bills, three-car garages — is organized according to the misconception that fossil fuels will always be around to provide energy exactly at our convenience. The challenge of embracing renewable energy is just as much mental as it is technical. It requires ditching the dominant industrial cognitive paradigm that still persists in an age where the transition away from fossil fuels use is imperative.
Germany is often praised as being the frontrunner in the transition to renewable energy. It is shutting down its nuclear power plants by 2022, and their capacity will be replaced by renewables. Today, the country already produces 38% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly wind and solar. Its long-term goal is to reach 80–95% by 2050. But is Germany on the right path to reach these goals?
“To most, the actions of the government are cynical and self-interested.”
When we think of the changes a clean energy transition will bring, we often think of a transition from high to low carbon technologies. But even the most engaged energy pundits tend to gloss over what may be one of the biggest changes of all: how we pay for and finance the energy we use, and what that may mean for the investors, industries, and companies that provide that energy.
Network operators should get involved soon in blockchain technology. If they miss the digital revolution, it will threaten their business model in the longer term and they could end up becoming pure network asset owners without operational responsibilities, writes Marius Buchmann of Jacobs University.
With a string of new investments and acquisitions in the past year (you can find a unique overview further on in this article!), Shell has quietly stepped up the pace of its transition from an oil and gas company into an energy company. “We are further along than people realize”, says Mark Gainsborough, Executive Vice-President of Shell New Energies, in an exclusive interview with Energy Post. According to Gainsborough, there is a “shift in thinking” within the company that is now irreversible. “People in Shell see a lot riding on the success of New Energies. And we are considered one of the most attractive units to work in. Anyone under the age of 35 wants to work for New Energies.”
