Sometimes I feel the need to move on

Well clearly the US election did not go the way I thought or hoped it would. The result will affect us all for many years in many ways, but none of them are likely to be good. I wrote about how I felt about the 2016 election here and right now I can’t add to that right now. I have made a decision to move on and spend less time reading and thinking about US politics, even though it is a life-long interest. I will just take action where I can. I started by acting on my belief in the power of impact investing, impact managing and impact consuming by coming off of X and moving my social media activity to Blue Sky. It is impossible for me to support any of Elon Musk’s businesses as he is clearly anti-democracy and many other things I don’t agree with.

Anyway as part of moving on I am now re-focused on working, writing and speaking to help accelerate the very necessary transition to a net zero and regenerative world. To that end ep is working on a number of projects including: our Net Zero Delivery Vehicle, an innovative public-private partnership to bridge the development gap between good ideas and bankable, large-scale, systematic net zero projects; a project working on distributed energy solutions in Ukraine; and ep Assets move into delivering distributed energy projects in the UK in response to client demand. We announced a partnership with Pixii, the fastest growing technology company in Norway in 2023, to introduce their Pixii box technology and energy storage solutions to the UK. ZPN Energy, where I am non-exec Chair, is rolling out its battery backed rapid EV chargers and mobile charging solutions. At CBHH we continue to raise capital for impactful energy transition and natural capital companies.

It is clear that electrification, and particularly distributed energy systems using solar PV, batteries, EV charging and flexibility is the next phase of the energy transition – driven by the drive to decarbonisation, economics, power supply constraints, and a desire for higher levels of resilience. The impact of this change will be massive and produce much higher levels of overall energy efficiency as fossil fuel use is displaced. It will also require us to move on in our thinking in several ways. Firstly all building and facility owners need to think of themselves as energy producers as well as consumers – the now over-used word prosumer applies. We are no longer just consumers and we need to take responsibility for our own energy generation and use as far as possible. At ep we believe all buildings should be power stations, producing power as well as providing ancillary services in the various grid support markets.

Secondly we need to re-think ‘energy’. Since the 1970s energy has been used in a way that confuses fuel and electricity. We need to make the distinction clear again, electricity is very different to fuel. Try putting fuel into an electrical device, or try putting electricity into your internal combustion engine car. Electrification, switching from fuel driven heating or mobility, to a low or zero carbon electricity grid, or a local micro-grid, results in so many benefits at all levels including big reductions in emissions.

Thirdly we need to think in new ways about energy statistics. We need to think about the quantity of energy services being delivered, it is that quantity that will be linked to wealth and GDP, not the level of primary energy being used. Memes on the internet saying something like there are no rich low energy countries, primarily being used to push a fossil fuel or nuclear agenda, are meaningless. Energy intensity, as measured by primary energy, will fall rapidly as more and more energy i.e. electricity, is generated close to where it is used, and metered energy taken from the grid falls; it will also fall as high efficiency electrical heating and mobility displaces low efficiency fossil fuelled systems in heating and transport. As I have said before, the level of energy efficiency in the economy is a choice, it is just a choice that we have generally made without thinking about it.

Despite the undoubtedly chaotic efforts of the incoming US Administration, and other wannabe dictators around the world, I believe the energy transition and particularly the move towards distributed solar and batteries will prove to be unstoppable. Their efforts to protect incumbent fossil fuel interests may delay things but at the end of the day they are dinosaurs looking up as the giant asteroid approaches.

In other news my 2013 book ‘Energy Efficiency. The Definitive Guide to the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Source of Energy’ is now out in paperback at a reasonable price, available from the publisher, all good book sellers and Amazon. It has stood the test of time well as a broad introduction to the subject but I am working on what will be a companion book, revisiting the subject and looking at some of the major changes that have happened in the last decade, notably the advent of cheap solar and batteries, and the growth of interest and activity in financing energy efficiency. I also published a collection of blogs from the first ten years of onlyelevenpercent.com – available on Amazon.

The title of this blog comes from the lyrics of ‘Move On’ by David Bowie