No matter how long does it take before sun shines after longest of nights; No matter how dark it gets at darkest of nights, the night always gets darkest right before the dawn but it doesn’t mean that sun would never shine again. I truly believe that energy industry is going through similar situation; we are currently in the absolute twilight period just between sunset and sunrise, in the sunset of a fossil fuel based energy regime which has made things worse for our planet over the years, and are found to be entrenched in our daily lives for long time hence can’t be separated easily. Sunsets always take long time; therefore, we will have to deal with this not so environmental friendly fossil fuel based energy regime for some time until the world is ready to be fully powered by sustainable energy systems for the greater good of us and our fellow creatures.
At present, the pace at which Climate change and the depletion of hydrocarbon reserves is happening is much faster than many scientists have earlier predicted, and the rate at which world leaders are putting in place new policies isn’t fast enough to combat climate change. The progress and sustainability of our communities primarily depends on how we, as a community, could come up with the solutions to the most pressing challenges that have surfaced from the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution such as global warming and climate change. In fact, I would say that if we really want to successfully transform these adversities into opportunities, what we need is nothing short of green energy revolution.
The energy transition from depleting fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources has become more important than ever and must take place smoothly and quickly to avert further environmental damages to our beautiful planet, but this transition is more daunting and difficult than most of us think it is, and it will only happen if we all work together with politicians, companies, NGOs and firmly believe in the beauty of sustainable future which awaits us ahead of this long dark night reigned by fossil fuel based energy regimes. And after doing research about the recent technical advancements (for example, blockchain and Internet of things-IoT) in the energy industry which are facilitating this energy transition by acting as a catalyst, lowering the activation energy required to get desired output (in this case minimizing the time required to go fully green). I could promise to the energy transition enthusiasts like me that dawn is coming. And once we get the other side of the dawn then the benefits of green energy revolution would be countless and permanent.
References
https://qz.com/1328344/renewable-energy-europe-keeps-setting-new-records-and-killing-off-coal/
https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A2595C