The Energy Transition

Watch

• A cuddle from the energy transition | Bart Vermang | TEDxUHasselt ↗TEDx Talks
• The Energy Transition | Giuseppe Onufrio | TEDxRoma ↗TEDx Talks
• The Economic Opportunity Hidden in the Climate Transition | Marielle Remillard | TED ↗TED
• The Best Thing That Could Happen to the Energy Industry | Matt Tilleard | TED ↗TED
• Can the world rely on renewable energy? | Future Earth | BBC News ↗BBC News
• Global renewables: Pioneering the energy transition | DW Documentary ↗DW Documentary

Read

• The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations ↗An authoritative survey of the geopolitical forces and technological shifts reshaping the global energy landscape.Daniel Yergin
• Energy and Civilization: A History ↗A magisterial account of how energy has underpinned human progress, offering essential context for the scale of today's transition.Vaclav Smil
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster ↗A pragmatic, technology-focused roadmap outlining the innovations and policies needed to decarbonise the global economy.Bill Gates
• Energy transitions: Global and national perspectivesA concise, data-driven analysis of historical energy shifts, tempering expectations for the speed of current transformations.Vaclav Smil
• Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil ↗An incisive examination of how fossil fuels have shaped political systems and limited democratic possibilities, offering a critical lens on the transition's challenges.Timothy Mitchell
• World Energy Outlook 2023: Executive SummaryThe indispensable annual assessment of global energy trends and projections, offering a benchmark for understanding the transition's trajectory.International Energy Agency (IEA)

Voices to follow

• Vaclav Smil ↗A prolific polymath, his work offers a sobering, data-rich counterpoint to overly optimistic narratives surrounding the pace and feasibility of energy transitions.Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba
• Amory Lovins ↗A long-standing proponent of 'negawatts' and efficiency, he has consistently demonstrated the economic and practical viability of a renewable energy future.Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute
• Ramez Naam ↗An articulate advocate for technological optimism, he provides compelling arguments for the rapid scalability and economic competitiveness of clean energy solutions.Co-Chair, Energy & Environment, Singularity University; Author

Glossary

• Climate ChangeClimate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns across the world. These shifts are mainly caused by human activities that release greenhouse gases, leading to things like more extreme heatwaves, heavier rains, and rising sea levels. For example, if your region starts experiencing much hotter summers and less predictable monsoon seasons than it used to, that's a sign of climate change.
• DecarbonizationDecarbonization means reducing or completely removing carbon dioxide (a major greenhouse gas) from our energy systems and economy. The goal is to stop relying on things that release carbon, like burning fossil fuels. For example, a city switching all its public buses from diesel to electric power is a step towards decarbonization.
• Electricity GridThe electricity grid is the vast network of power lines, transformers, and power stations that generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to homes, schools, and businesses. Think of it as the highway system for electricity. For example, when you plug in your phone charger, the electricity comes from the power station, travels through the electricity grid, and reaches your home.
• Energy EfficiencyEnergy efficiency means using less energy to achieve the same result or task. It's about getting more work done with less power, which saves money and reduces the need for energy production. For example, replacing old light bulbs with LED bulbs that use much less electricity to give the same amount of light is an act of energy efficiency.
• Energy TransitionThis is the big shift happening worldwide, moving from old ways of getting energy (like burning coal) to newer, cleaner ways (like using sunlight or wind). It's about changing how we power our homes, cars, and factories to protect the planet. For example, when a country decides to build more solar farms and fewer coal power plants, that's part of its energy transition.
• Fossil FuelsFossil fuels are energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas that formed over millions of years from the remains of ancient plants and animals. When burned, they release a lot of energy, but also gases that harm the environment. For example, the petrol used in cars or the coal burned in some power plants are types of fossil fuels.
• Greenhouse GasesThese are gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, like a blanket, keeping our planet warm. While some are natural, human activities, especially burning fossil fuels, release too many of them, causing the Earth to get too hot. Carbon dioxide is a common example. For example, the exhaust fumes from a bus contain greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.
• Renewable EnergyRenewable energy comes from natural sources that replenish themselves constantly, meaning they won't run out. These sources include sunlight, wind, water, and heat from the Earth. For example, the electricity generated by solar panels on a rooftop or by large wind turbines in a field is renewable energy.
• Solar PowerSolar power is electricity generated by capturing sunlight, usually with special panels called solar panels. These panels convert the sun's energy directly into usable electricity. For example, many homes now have solar panels on their roofs to generate electricity, or large fields might be covered with solar panels to power entire towns.
• Wind PowerWind power is electricity generated by harnessing the force of the wind using large machines called wind turbines. The wind spins the blades of these turbines, which then turn a generator to produce electricity. For example, you might see tall wind turbines on hillsides or offshore in the sea, spinning to create clean electricity for nearby communities.

Threads 7

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Homeostasis Health

  Solar and wind make power in bursts, but people want electricity around the clock, so a green grid has to store energy for the calm, dark hours. Your body pulls the same trick with glucose, stashing sugar when food is plentiful to burn when it isn't. Batteries on the grid are basically the same idea as your body keeping itself steady.

• Slavery, Race & Rights History

  One barrel of oil packs the muscle-work of a person laboring for years. Historians call fossil fuel an 'energy slave' because it did the backbreaking jobs humans and animals used to do. Some argue cheap coal is part of why abolishing the real, human kind of slavery finally became imaginable.

• Political Economy Political Science

  Coal had to be dug and hauled by huge crews of miners and railway workers, and those workers could shut everything down by striking, which is how they won the vote and built mass democracy. Oil flows through pipelines run by almost nobody, so there's no crowd to strike, letting a few rulers hoard the wealth and power. The fuel a country runs on quietly shapes whether it's free.

• Power, Status & Authority Sociology

  When a country's energy comes from a few oilfields or coal seams, power over people tends to pool in a few hands too, because whoever controls the wells controls everything. But energy like sunlight is spread everywhere and hard to lock down. The physical shape of your energy quietly shapes who gets to rule.

• Growth & Productivity Economics

  You'd think a more efficient engine burns less fuel. But when steam engines got better, people burned way more coal, because cheap power made them invent tons of new ways to use it. That trap is called the rebound effect: making energy cheaper to save it can make us gobble even more. It haunts every plan to fix climate change with efficiency alone.

• Antibiotic Resistance Health

  Every time we take an antibiotic, bacteria evolve a little more resistance, so the drug slowly stops working, forever. That means antibiotic power is a finite reserve we're using up, exactly like oil in the ground, except it took evolution millions of years to build. We're burning through it fast and creeping toward 'peak antibiotic,' the point where we start running out.

• Complexity & Emergence Science

  A cell has to get back more energy than it spends hunting for food, or it dies. A civilization works the same way. When the energy you get from your fuel barely beats the energy it costs to get that fuel, there's nothing left over to run a complex society, and history shows societies have collapsed exactly when their fuel stopped paying off.