Tag Archives: Decarbonization

Will Critical Mineral Supplies Stop the Energy Transition?

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Image sourced: IEA report The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions

An energy system powered by clean energy technologies differs profoundly from one fuelled by traditional hydrocarbon resources.

One real challenge is the impact on this energy transition that critical minerals will bring. These are new, different, perhaps more complex challenges to energy security. The shift to clean energy systems will bring potential new vulnerabilities.

The minerals needed for clean energy have huge questions over the availability and reliability of supply. There are a high concentration of production, long project development lead times, the worry over declining resource quality and growing scrutiny over environmental, social performance and climate risks.

These issues throw an increasing spotlight on supply sources and how critical mineral security can have far-reaching consequences throughout the energy system as we pivot towards a clean energy transition. Continue reading →

Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors- so what’s there not to like?

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Visual Source: Seaborg Technologies

Let’s discuss Nuclear in different ways than the present discussion has gone. Nuclear has been not given the debate it deserves. That needs changing in my view.

This is largely from the use of salt! Well, actually, small modular reactors offer a Nuclear future as part of our clean energy requirements.

I wrote a piece recently, “the Elephant that should be in the Energy Debate,” and it is largely because of the technology, safety and reality of what Nuclear offers in new approaches and designs that make it have a real place to be at the Energy Transition table.

Firstly what is a molten salt reactor (MSR)?

It is a class of nuclear fission reactors where the primary coolant and/or the fuel is a molten salt mixture. There are several different designs, all looking to bring small modular reactors (SMR) to market.

MSR has significant advantages over traditional nuclear reactors. Continue reading →

The Elephant that should be more in the Energy Debate

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Nuclear should “sit” in the Energy Transition debate is a tough one to call. The public sentiment, in general, would be against a ramping up of Nuclear after the two significant disasters etched onto our minds and stand out of Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima Daichi in 2011, and the human and environmental impact.

The impact of nuclear accidents has been debated since the first nuclear reactors were constructed in 1954. It has been a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities ever since. Human error does happen. According to the IAEA, I was surprised by the high levels of accidents in the USA.

So why discuss an energy source that is highly contentious to argue it still has a future within the energy mix? Several reasons, many include Nuclear is still seen as a real need to deliver clean energy.

Continue reading →

A decade pivotal to a clean energy future.

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Explicit Milestones within this report are staggering in implications

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its most comprehensive report “Net Zero by 2050: a roadmap for the Global Energy Sector” on 18th May 2021.

The roadmap outlined underscores how pivotal this current decade is to ever reach net-zero by mid-century. In my opinion, it is the next three to five years that will determine this. If we fail to drive down emissions into a really sharp decline through a global political will we are in serious trouble.

It is only through strong and credible energy policies and significant investment into clean energy solutions we will get onto any pathway. If we fail to recognize the overwhelming needs to change we can say goodbye to 2050 as a net-zero target, then that will have colossal economic and climatic consequences. Continue reading →

Mobilizing Innovation around Energy Poverty

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Mobilizing Innovation around Energy Poverty

Credit Muhammad Muzamil, Unsplash

As we look across innovation for our energy transition solutions, let’s think a little more about social innovation. What is energy poverty? Why is this important to turn our innovative abilities towards resolving?

Energy poverty has no universal definition. Each country is at different levels of understanding. Here in Europe, I read a white paper by Schneider Electric, released in 2018, entitled “Overcoming poverty in Europe.”

There is no official definition of “energy poverty”, but to start somewhere, it can be described as the struggle to afford the ever-increasing cost of heating or lighting in homes or being able to cook food or heat water as a result of low income or bills that are too high. Energy poverty leads to suffering from the cold in winter and from the heat in summer. Continue reading →

A dizzy array of Energy solutions to Decarbonization

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Finding the pathway to fast decarbonization.

We need the fastest transition through all means possible of the low carbon options, but we have to be highly conscious of the possible lock-in risks in investments and where we might deflect our research and development. We need to stay highly focused on taking us into the future of achieving net-zero emissions. And to be very aware of this “lock-in effect” if we chose the wrong transformation pathway.

The technology mix to decarbonize each economy and industry reliant is tough to navigate. Organizations like the IEA need to be turned to for the best advice, not specific solution providers pushing their solutions on a narrow pathway of their focus. Continue reading →

Where does distinctive innovation fit in the Energy Transition?

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The missing value of distinctive innovation needs greater appreciation in the Energy Transition

I think we miss something and it is a great big pity.

Distinctive innovation is actually not just the middle ground, the passing through point towards breakthrough or disruptive, but it is the inspirational point for all of us to rally around far more than we do.

 Pushing for that extra effort takes something good to something even better; it gives it a certain distinctiveness. Inspiration within the innovation process is essential; it is a great motivating point to achieve far more in our identity with something distinctive than just incremental. Whatever we work upon in innovation, we should seek something distinctive as an outcome. Continue reading →

Our focus is finding a Sustainable Energy Transition

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Visual by dreamstime.com

You do get the feeling that the world is beginning to wake up to the climate crisis.

Is it too little, too late or that we still have time left?

The energy transition will provide the pathway for transforming our energy sector from fossil-fuel-based energy to ones based on a range of zero-carbon solutions.

Although 2050 has been the target set to achieve this zero-carbon transition, the growing realization is this must be accelerated. Continue reading →

Shaping the Power Generation sector

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I recently viewed a Power Generation survey conducted a year or so back and found it valuable to motivate change. It was centred on the Middle East Power Generation sector and conducted by Siemens to help them understand future power generation’s underlying trends.

This Siemens survey had as the main question to the survey: “Which trends do you think are currently having the biggest impact on the power generation sector in your region“.

Now in reading this, we have to recognize this is the Middle East with an abundance of oil and gas, but are the trends similar for other regions of the world? The responses I would suggest are certainly reflecting a global movement; the ranking orders might vary. They bring out the opportunities and challenges all power generation is going through presently, I would think. Continue reading →

My initial thinking behind Energy Fitness Landscapes

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I am looking at the Energy Transition from an evolving technology innovation perspective. In other words, what “forces” can be identified or promoted that can transform the existing energy system through the pursuit of the new invention, innovation, or technological advancement.

Specifically, the ones that will be needed over such an extended time and complexity of change that this Energy Transition will take upwards of twenty to thirty years to give it an unstoppable momentum.

I have been building out the value in my proposal of having a Fitness Landscape framework within the Energy Transition and why it makes sense.

Here in this post, I want to expand my thinking around navigating a complex landscape that the Energy Transition demands. Continue reading →