Keys to Sustainable Communities and Countries
American Coal Plants: How Long Can One Outlast The Other?
The demand for electricity in the US has basically been flat for the last 10 years. The market is not growing. Hence, it is obvious that anybody who has a piece of the pie will do anything to maintain the status-quo. Add to it the fact that the economics of the existing conventional fleet just doesn’t work. Coal plants are not making money, more than half are in the red. Same with the nuclear plants. So it is not about — Will they be taken out? It is all about — how long can one outlast the other? In the end, they all have to go.
China is HALF of Everything!
Europe was the first to adopt mass renewables. Today, the market in this continent is well past beyond its infancy, dealing with the complexities of market development in keeping with fluctuating demand and prices. Germany generates 22% of its energy from solar and wind, Spain and Portugal — about 25% and Denmark is currently leading with 47%. Looking into the future, whom do we predict to lead the global market? Not Europe! As in 2017, China has 40% of the global investment in clean energy. In fact China is half of everything!
Machine Learning — The Big Breakthrough in Data Analytics
Machine Learning (ML) is a technique to discover trends and patterns in large complicated data sets that are unstructured, to produce insights and analysis. How can the energy sector benefit from ML? It can promote productivity, can elevate energy efficiency in the grid and power plants, limits labor costs and promises to almost eradicate shut down maintenance payments. It can transform complicated consumer patterns and trends into analysis. However, the ecosystem that supports this innovation is absolutely necessary for it to make the big splash!
Electric Vehicle (EV) Adoption Needs Policy
In more and more countries, EV sales are crossing the 1% threshold of total sales. 1% is pretty small, but makes it interesting is that after reaching this threshold, most EV markets climb higher very quickly. Example — Norway; it took just four years to get from 6% to 39%. Lot of it is driven by very generous incentives from policy makers, which in fact, are hard to maintain as sales percentages grow. Policy mechanisms supporting the industry need to suitably evolve as sales volume grow. Norway, with its continuously evolving ‘Zero Emission’ incentive program since early 1990s, is a good example of how its government has induced customers to choose an EV over a fuel-burning car.
The Future of Natural Gas
Burning natural gas produces nearly half as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy compared with coal. And with the discovery and boom of U.S. shale, natural gas is plentiful and cheap. Well, there is a challenge! Gas is tricky to transport from the often-remote fields where it’s found to where it’s needed. In many places, pipelines simply aren’t practical. The solution? Turn the gas into a liquid by super cooling it to -162o C (-260o F). Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), can be loaded on ships and transported around the world. This high-tech process has transformed natural gas into a more freely traded commodity with the potential to reshape the politics of global energy.
2025: Digitization and Renewable Energy
Revenue for digital services for fossil fuel operation / maintenance are estimated to be $24 billion in 2017 — about 44% of the total market size for digitization. However, as natural gas and coal plants come offline, these revenues will decline and the digitization industry focus will shift to renewable energy. By 2025, digital technologies will be more intelligent and more capable to overcome some of the key challenges in the energy sector — intermittency, aging grids, balancing distribution-connected generation, managing consumer self-generation, and coping with increasing system complexity.
