When I set up this posting site https://innovating4energy.com in December 2019, I stated within the site identity the tagline “a transition in all of our lives.” Little did I know how our lives would change at that time and continually do so in a very unhealthy geopolitical environment where collaboration is rapidly deteriorating to solve our rapidly warming planet.

I have found working in this energy transition space to be extremely hard, if not at times overwhelming. It is so complex, challenging and caught between the extremes of needed change and no change. You wonder what will happen, not just in the year 2050 as that year we need to have achieved bringing our world to a net-zero in carbon.

Just how we will be capable of transitioning to a net zero energy system by 2050, ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth is seemingly getting harder to grasp than it was a year ago or even when I started this posting site.

A 2050 goal beyond us all

Understanding and even believing this net-zero goal by 2050  is beyond me, but perhaps this goal is beyond us all.

All I know, in my gut, is that something really radical has to change dramatically. I know, we know, that we are approaching a decisive moment for international efforts to tackle the climate crisis –one of the greatest challenges of our times. Actually, we are reminded of this every day.

Yet we seem to be at a point where energy sources have become weaponized, rapidly altering the pace of change and the complexity of managing any energy transition in these immediate years. Essential materials are in limited supply and limited hands for resourcing. Scaling has been hampered by global supply chain issues; normally reliant profit sources have become unpredictable and markets more volatile.

I was so disappointed by CoP 26; it deeply affected me to question the resolve, understanding, and beliefs of all involved, caught in a very bad position. I just kept asking, “how has this happened?” All we saw  was “raw” politics”, intensive lobbying and levels of hype and spin, leaving the conference outcome as “grabbing on straws of hope.” That alone is not enough.

I keep asking myself can this continue? We see the effects of climate impact every minute of every day, we see entrenched positions.

I believe there is a real need to “step back” and reconsider where we are. Many of the alternative solutions to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels within any energy transition have been identified at different points of validation or scaling.

We need to make sense of this current global disorder to begin to act in a very different world. I wanted to go back to one of my favourite frameworks, the Cynefin framework, for partly thinking through the “known-unknown-unknowable” in our present world.

We are seemingly more in the “unknown or unknowable” at present, perhaps in a world of disorder, in our understanding and actions to manage the energy transition. This post explains the framework:  “focusing on moving from disorder in today’s world.”

So the Cynifin framework really helps us make sense of our present world. Where it was, where it is at present and where it needs to return to or actually be reframed as a world that needs different order and thinking.

Yet we do need a new order, a new shaping of the eventual ecosystem for the design, transition and laying down, in an orderly fashion, the new energy system.

I come back, we need to change the Energy Ecosystem

I find Mind Maps as a great tool to think, record and review my thoughts. Within a recent evaluation of my positioning in contributing to the energy transition.

These are a (real) work-in-progress to regain my footing and find the contribution points.

I have, at this time, left them as mind map segments and have not attempted to explain them, letting the map do the talking or describing.

Initial thoughts on Changing the Energy Ecosystem

The build towards new Value Propositions

Dealing with Disruption and Rapid Learning Approaches

In my next post related to thinking about building a new Energy Ecosystem, I will focus on 1. Reforming Business Models, 2. Finding resolutions, 3. Innovation & Ingenuity, 4. Experimentation & Rapid Pilots, 5. Leapfrog Opportunities.

The pressing Energy need

I return to the need, in my opinion, the burning need, to recast Energy into a new Energy Ecosystem. We need to get the narrative and positioning right and have this as our evolutionary perspective.