The Energy Challenge
“A shortage of power generation capacity could lead to blackouts across Britain. The government reckons that, of a total of around 75GW in generating capacity, 20GW will disappear by 2015.” – The Economist, August 2009
Recent volatility in the price of oil, gas and coal has brought energy’s uniquely pivotal importance to modern society in to axiomatic clarity. For most of recent history fossil fuels have been priced to provide energy of all types that lave largely been:
- Cheap
- Available
- Reliable
- Convenient
This unusually beneficent combination has exerted massive influence on the structure of modern industrial society and the way it has operated.
Not any more…
For most of the world’s energy consumers few of these attributes will continue to be true and almost nowhere will all four continue to co-exist concurrently – From now on just about everybody undertaking any kind of productive activity will have to pay attention to one or more of these factors. For most this change represents a very undesirable threat but for those individuals and organisations that understand the shift, it also represents an incredible opportunity.