Energy journey
There are multiple options, what's better? what should we follow?
I love this topic, but I have to admit that is really hard to come into a common ground when there are so many parties involved, and if you ask me why is hard, I will blame unawareness as the main reason. That’s why I want to keep creating content to share my perspective which could be right or wrong, but I know that by “just sharing ”, I will trigger more ideas that ultimately will contribute to the best solution. That is my whole purpose.
Energy supply & Energy perspectives are very different across the global economies. One country’s view of what is a sustainable & affordable is very different from another. There are countries which will prioritize reliable & affordable energy over sustainability. In Nigeria for example, the main concern is about keeping generators running because the electric grid is not reliable, how can you create a discussion about next steps when you have not yet achieved the previous one? This will be hypocritical but at the same time I know it can be possible - there are toddlers that get into walking without passing for crawling (my boy was one of them)- Therefore, our conversations in countries like Nigeria must be even more profound compared to places like Norway.
Here is my key take away from my energy journey, from the little that I know we can feel confident that the answer may lay in saying ‘Yes’ to almost all of source of energies;
- Yes to electric but let’s talk about mining effects.
- Yes to wind but let’s be aware of the effect of illegal balsa wood extraction for the blades.
- Yes to oil and gas but let’s be conscious of the GHG footprint (CO2)
- Yes to … Hydrogen/Ammonia, CCS, Geothermal … etc
- No to Deep-ocean polymetallic nodules. I want to say yes here but i have very low confidence on how we can regulate it.
We should say ‘Yes’ to everything because it is going to take a complete blend to deliver the energy that we need to move forward… let’s keep the conversation positive on what needs to be done but let’s also highlight flaws, pitfalls and risks without backing ourselves into a defensive corner.
We should also think about how to discourage people from owning multiple cars (first step) and as society, we also need to invest more in public transport. There are tons of articles that refers to the importance of building Safe, Accessible, Reliable and Affordable (SARA) mobility systems for the economy.
Today’s estimate of vehicle registration (worldwide) is around 1.5 billion cars and let me tell you that the vast majority are powered by gasoline. Can you imagine replacing just 10% of them in the short term, how many mountains do you need to blow? how many holes are needed in order to extract the Lithium, Neodymium and Cobalt? I can’t foresee a good future in that (click here for related info).
Even recently, I heard about a technology that use Deep-ocean polymetallic nodules as a resource for critical materials, and NO, I don’t trust humans for doing mining in the deepest of our ocean. How will you oversee something that you cannot really see, look at what is happening around the industrial fishing and the damaged caused due to the lack of regulations or maybe is safer to say; it’s proper implementation. If we blindly do so, we will put an expiration stamp in our Seafood supply chain!
We have many precedents in history where technological solutions haven’t always created a better world. So let’s keep the spectrum open while the world mature the best alternatives, at the same time we can encourage people to change behaviors, as this is one of the main contributors for greenhouse emission. Beware that the reflection from your mirror is a key contributor of our CO2 problems.
If you reach this point, you may be interested on reading:
