Energy Leaders Acknowledge Disruptive Change, Survey Says
David Wagman | April 07, 2017A survey highlights shifting priorities in the energy sector with an increasing focus on a lower carbon future. Disruptive technologies including renewable energies and energy efficiency are impacting top action priorities for energy leaders globally in 2017.
In its eighth year, The World Energy Issues Monitor 2017: "Exposing the new energy realities" published by the World Energy Council, provides a snapshot of the current priorities, facing global energy leaders.
Renewables ranked high in impact within every region in a survey of more than 1,200 energy leaders in 95 countries. The report says that solar has undergone "immense growth" in installed capacity reaching 227 gigawatts by the end of 2015, while global wind power generation capacity increased at a rate of 17.2% in 2015.
Dr Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the Council said in a statement, "Our survey shows energy leaders face and acknowledge disruptive change." He says the Issues Monitor illustrates that innovation issues such as digitalization, decentralization, innovative market design or electric storage rapidly gain traction, "while a more difficult growth context and new physical and digital risks are posing ever greater threats to the energy sector."
Other findings include:
- Commodity price volatility remains number one critical uncertainty
- Shifts in geopolitical power due to a renewed focus on US policy, Brexit and uncertainty over EU cohesion
- New physical and virtual risks - Cyber-attacks are posing ever greater threats to the energy sector
- Talent acquisition and retention will become a major focus as new technologies continue to reshape the energy industry
What a load of cobblers this article is. Since the early 1990's this has been known along with he major losses of lines and the shortfall of electricty. Wind power impacting was known as far back as the late 1990's and the utilities chose to ignore these facts. They were too busy arguig money and playing games to make profits for shareholders and breaking up conglomerates who dominated markets.
None of what is reported here is current and for over 25 years nothing has changed except for more blackouts, more demand, more rising costs and less attentio to looking forward and resolving 25 year old issues. The mad scramble is on for more solar, more wind, more battery and this is not going to resolve anything in the long term.
Carbon emission reduction may be a grand idea, but it is not the answer, as one volcano exploding, out-does any saving that has been made. Of course there is a scramble and increase of solar and wind power, as this is an industry who has found a profitable market niche to stay in business with. But if the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow, there is more inefficiency in the systems. The number of wind turbines I have seen world wide, that simply do not turn on a good day is staggering. We know solar is clean but inefficient at approx 15-24% efficiency. It needs to run cool to be more efficient. Battery is costly and has a very limited life span. It is a quick fix in a jamb, on any large scale, and consumes much land space that then lies to waste.
Rather than reporting the propaganda most love to hear, why not provide the long term solutions, (of which there are many), and provide the supply rather than the summits and meetings and conferences which have resolved nothing in the past 25 odd years, except fine dinning, drinking and cronyism, airline and hotel profits.
Is this something new we should be informed of? Just another scam with a twist on carbon? I am sure we all know the issue is greed rather than fixing an age old problem. The threat is not digitisation or anything else, it is the age old threat of greed and money.