Waypoint 3
I am documenting my own journey into & through the global Energy Transition movement. Along this renewable path, I am marking waypoints to capture and share my insights with those on similar paths.
I have reached the next point in my ongoing journey where I need to pause briefly and collect some of my thoughts. This Waypoint article format is proving useful to me for capturing any number of topics and ideas that are helping shape my understanding of the Energy Transition movement. This is the next batch:
The only sensible electrification approach is one that is powered by clean energy
I have already determined that for me, the wholesale electrification of the transportation, agriculture and industrial sectors provides some of the most attractive opportunities of the Energy Transition. It is a massive, global effort that will take decades to tackle.
It is truly hard to appreciate the scale associated with the widespread shift from fossil fuel-powered machines to fully electric alternatives. BUT - if for example, you are charging your new EV from a grid that is still being powered by coal or natural gas, we haven’t really solved the problem!
The world is going to need to simultaneously swap in electric versions of all these machines while also ensuring that they will ultimately be charged from clean, renewable energy sources.
Emergency vehicles might struggle to be fully electric
It was during my research into consumer electric vehicles and hybrids (see article here) that I started to think more broadly about what other types of transportation would follow the same path. Range anxiety, that is the fear that you will run out of juice during your trip, would seem to be more glaring for rescue vehicles like ambulances and fire engines.
In a few informal surveys of actual EMT workers, I got consistent responses that they couldn’t imagine performing their emergency services in a truck that had the potential to run out of power.
I will try to dig up more information on how different segments of the transportation sector will address their own unique(?) paths away from gasoline and diesel-powered fleets.
Will natural disasters provide opportunities for rebuilding the power grid infrastructure?
I am reading about long-standing issues with the US power grid which were recently amplified by the 2021 winter storm in Texas and the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. It seems inevitable that we will need to revisit how this critical infrastructure was created/expanded over the last century and look for opportunities to rebuild significant parts of it to be more resilient. BTW, Gretchen Bakke’s book, The Grid is a great read on this topic.
It occurred to me that the increasingly frequent damage we are experiencing from natural disasters alone might provide such opportunities to rethink and ideally rebuild parts of the grid. I recognize that when these emergencies take place, the country is much more motivated to act quickly and restore power to the people and businesses that rely on it. So, it won’t be ideal to use those specific moments to start a thoughtful discussion about building back with renewable energy or more resilient grid components.
But we can expect these incidents to continue so perhaps it is possible to plan ahead and create more innovative methods for responding to outages, ones that are not focused on quickly restoring the old power structure but lay new groundwork for a more sustainable energy grid. More on this in future articles for sure!
My friends and colleagues are finding RE jobs!
Over the past few months, I have been taking note of the peers in my professional network that have been landing work in the Renewable Energy space. I am intrigued of course as I am also steering my career down the same path.
For example, one colleague was recently tasked with crafting a new, from-scratch corporate level strategy to help her company reach its zero carbon emissions goals over the next decade. She is currently collecting and comparing similar plans that have been created by early pioneers but there don’t seem to be any templates for this (yet).
Another Software Product Manager friend was just hired to lead a new team that is expected to help the large parent transportation company ultimately electrify their entire global fleet. It is not clear how they will do that, but I admire the ambitious targets!
And most recently, I learned that another PM started working for a company that helps secure financing for viable commercial solar projects. His company uses a national network of partners & vendors to do the actual solar panel installations so while he and his new company are more on the outer rings of clean solar power, my friend is still quite happy to be part of the Energy Transition.
All exciting developments. I would categorize most of this recent activity as 2nd or 3rd level RE job opportunities based on the loose Tiers structure I described here. Specifically, these companies are not directly innovating or building the core RE-specific technologies but rather focusing on extensions to Tier 1 solutions. I look forward to tapping these smart brains for future content and insights!