Managing Energy Transition and Challenges of New Energy

Global warming and its devastating effects on the climate have awakened the world to the reality that using fossil fuels as a source of energy is not sustainable. Natural processes of hydrocarbon generation and accumulation, which take millions of years, cannot be undone in decades without paying a heavy price. Renewables and hydrogen could be the alternative to fossil fuel, but the transition process can only be bumpy, for it is only in the recent past that this change is being initiated. This paper gives a perspective on the state of development of the alternate sources of energy including investments, the technological and policy challenges. Decarbonisation methods, essential to keep carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere within limits, in the intermittent period have also been discussed. Geopolitics and economics have played a significant role in ensuring supply of fossil fuel during the last few decades, which resulted in the economic development of the Middle East. All this is also likely to change and countries, which have a rich endowment of rare earth metals, essential for production of alternate energy and their processing facilities, will reap the benefits. Monopoly in the resources required for development of alternate energy can create issues of energy security and this needs to be checked for a sustainable global development. Absence of cheap fossil fuel energy can enhance development cost which the non-OECD (organisation for economic cooperation and development) countries will have to bear, besides devastations due to global warming. Whether OECD countries will compensate poorer countries against this devastation is anyone’s guess. Managing a smooth transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen and renewables before irreversible climate change occurs is the challenge mankind is facing today. Human beings, today are confronted with two alternatives i.e. to transform energy sector to renewable based or perish.

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