“Energy Gang” Bullish on Renewables

The Energy Gang, GreenTechMedia’s weekly podcast on the migration to renewable energy, is emceed by my colleague Stephen Lacey, a young man from whom I’ve learned a great deal via our many talks through the years.   I like to follow the show, mainly because it takes on the big ideas in the energy industry.

The episode that was published on April 27, 2015, entitled “Why Renewables Can’t Be Stopped,” began by covering the implications of the rebound in clean energy investment.  In particular, after a two-year dip in global clean energy spending, the world saw a record $310 billion invested in solar, wind, storage and energy efficiency in 2014 (though this needs to double if we are to turn the corner on climate change by the year 2020).

I would call that an example of a “big idea”—and here’s another: Michael Liebreich, founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, began by explaining how, over an incredibly short period of time (the last 10 years) the fossil fuel industry has lost the long-term race for electricity generation to renewables.  He goes on to explain exactly how the transformation is taking place, even in places that appeared to be headed for decades upon decades of coal burning, like India.

Of course, electricity is only roughly one-third of world energy consumption.  What about transportation and heating (the other two-thirds)?  Liebreich explains how electric transportation is in essentially the same place now that electricity was 10 years ago, and predicts a rapid transition here as well.  The heating of our buildings is all about efficiency, i.e., (as he put it) “insulation, insulation, and insulation.”

Vindication always feels good; it’s nice to see the basic tenets that we forward here at 2GreenEnergy validated so directly and so forcefully.  It’s essentially the theme of “Bullish on Renewable Energy,” i.e., the battle is already over; the question now is how quickly we pick up the pieces and minimize damage to the environment to the greatest degree possible.