World Energy Council Urges Change To Energy Transition Approach

It is becoming increasingly clear that the ambitious project adopted mainly by OECD countries to subsidize and force an energy transition away from fossil fuels and drive global greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 is failing. An array of corporations and governments at all levels have in recent months announced delays or outright abandonment of aggressive net zero timelines and goals as market forces, resource and capital limitations, and simple realities renders them impractical and unachievable.

In the U.S., this trend has become crystal clear in both the electric vehicles and offshore wind industries over the past twelve months. In the automotive sector, many pure-play EV makers are now either in bankruptcy or teetering on the brink, while legacy carmakers like Ford, GM, Volvo, and Stellantis have spent much of this year having to explain big losses and re-thinking their strategic approaches and investments.

The recent disaster at the Vineyard Wind I project offshore Massachusetts, where the collapse of a 105 meter-long blade littered the Atlantic Ocean and Nantucket Island beaches with chunks of fiberglass core material, forcing federal regulators to shut down the country’s only operational offshore wind project and giving the industry a public relations black eye. It’s also raising public concerns over the vulnerability of such giant blades and turbines perched atop 850-foot-tall towers when rough weather conditions inevitably arise.