SAMPOL236 lecture 5 - energy transition

What are the options for transitioning away from fossil fuel energy sources?

• Renewable energy

  • Energy which comes from the wind, sun etc

• Hydroelectric power

  • Water collected in a regulated reservoir at a high altitude and a valve is opened to produce electricity - flexible to increase when demand rises unlike other sources which are intermittent

  • About 15% of world's energy consumption

  • Many issues - big environmental impact, land use, nature and wildlife, flooding

    • Alta case - plans to build a hydroelectric dam in the Alta-Kautokeino waterways were proposed in 1968

    • Large consequences for local indigenous Sami people and the local environment - massive demonstrations

    • Dam was built but protests did have impacts on future processes

• Onshore wind power

  • Moving air is used to turn wind turbines and generate electricity

  • Issues with land use, nature and wildlife

  • 'not in my backyard' - local backlash

  • Indigenous rights

    • Fosen case - 2021 norwegian supreme court ruled that wind power licences issued in 2010 for wind farms in the fosen area violated the cultural rights of local Sami reindeer herders - but turbines still there and spinning

    • Need for green energy justice

• Offshore wind power - less NIMBYism

  • Bottom fixed or floating - deep waters off norway coast means floating required

  • Land use and enviro impact

• Solar power - photovoltaic (roofs etc) or concentrating solar thermal (more industry level)

  • Land use nature and wildlife issues

  • Supply chain and critical minerals

What are the components of the energy trilemma, and to what extent does it remain a valid concept in the context of the energy transition?

• Energy security

  • IEA

    • core economic and social issue both now and with renewables - mineral supply chain concentrated in China

      • 45-60% of global deployment dominated by china in next 10 years - concerning

    • Renewables will dramatically change geopolitics but still not evenly distributed

      • e.g. more about sourcing materials and tech rather than constant supply of energy - once infrastructure is in place they have enegry

      • chokepoints less important e.g. strait of hormuz

    • need to make this more diverse and resilient

    • also need to be more resilient to extreme weather, cyberattacks etc on infrastructure

• Energy equity

  • renewables cheaper but equity/just transition is important

  • who pays? e.g. higher income households more likely to have solar

  • distributional conflict - fairly allocating costs (e.g. kalahari mining) and benefits

  • FF jobs

• Environmental sustainability

  • need to think about GHG emission release as well as local impacts of mining, manufacturing etc

  • not as simple as renewables are more sustainable

What are the key challenges to transitioning from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources?

Challenges:

• The environmental impact

• Green extractivism - exploitation of natural resources and land for the purpose of sustainability, decarbonization and green growth

  • e.g. Kalahari (action aid)

• Public acceptance - link to geo lecture stuff

• Socio-political acceptance - acceptance by the public, key actors and stakeholders

• Community acceptance - NIMBY, energy justice

• Market acceptance - does the market adopt the innovation - consumer access and willingness to invest

What are the key opportunities to transitioning from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources?

Opportunities:

• Energy security - can transition to democratization of energy

  • but still challenges - just different

• Grid expansion and flexibility

  • bottleneck as cannot expand grid as quickly as we need

  • aging infrastructures and lengthy permitting processes

  • long grid connection queues