Ken Medlock highlights the importance of supply chains and legacy infrastructures for the success of new technologies and stresses the role of coordination along supply chains to drive value. A holistic awareness of economics, politics, regulation, and resource scarcity is critical for developing market structures that support investment for effective decarbonization.
Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools could prove an important contributor to successfully decarbonizing energy. Christopher Bronk discusses how they can enhance our ability to process and understand extensive data streams in energy, policy, technology, and geopolitics, which could transform the way we process information and assess regional and global situations in real time.
Rachel A. Meidl discusses why sustainability requires an approach that includes environmental, social, and economic factors across the entire supply chain spanning the life cycle of energy systems. Sustainability must move beyond a narrow focus on carbon metrics to address broader impacts and drive innovation. As companies emphasize sustainability imperatives, life cycle management will become increasingly important.
The transportation industry is squarely impacted by energy transitions. Ed Emmett discusses the importance of a nation’s transportation system for its economic health, much like a circulatory system is critical for the health of the individual. Shifting to new transportation energy sources poses challenges because, in some applications, it requires not just a change in the technology embodied in the mode of transportation, but an overhaul of the entire system. Each mode of transportation — from cars to shipping fleets to planes — faces different constraints that impact the economic viability of different fuel sources and methods of scaling.
Ken Medlock offers a brief history of the Center for Energy Studies and an overview of its data-driven, cross-cutting research on the forces propelling energy market evolution.
The challenges faced in the Texas electricity market are well publicized, but not insurmountable. Julie A. Cohn presents key findings and recommendations to address concerns about the reliability of the Texas energy grid. Several issues to watch have bearing on the state’s economy and the well-being of its population. Moreover, the outcomes of proposed policies to address various issues carry implications for electrification and the deployment of renewable energy well beyond Texas.
Gabriel Collins discusses how global events and rising energy demands are impacting Western-led energy transition efforts, with developing Asia taking a lead. The evolution of the global economy, the energy system that fuels it, and policies shaping regional directions all have ramifications for countries that have been economic stalwarts.
Ted Loch-Temzelides discusses how Germany, once Europe’s economic leader, is now struggling with high energy prices and poor economic performance. This is bringing a new focus on controversial energy policies, including an emphasis on specific energy types, a reliance on Russian gas, and the closure of nuclear plants.
The Middle East remains a vital supplier of oil and gas resources, but it could begin to take on a different role. Jim Krane discusses the region’s emerging energy strategies in light of energy transitions, highlighting challenges and opportunities for decarbonization.
After seven years of steady decline and an accumulated drop of 25%, Latin America’s crude oil production has recovered by more than 9% over the past two years, thanks to significant growth in Guyana and Brazil and smaller increases in Argentina and Venezuela. Francisco J. Monaldi walks us through these developments and what could be ahead for the region.
