The Daily Planet #29: Energy Geopolitics, part 1

Energy is at the heart of civilization, and every shift in energy production leads to shifts in power. The shift from Coal to Oil went hand in hand with hegemony moving from Britain to the United States, and that didn't happen 'naturally,' but rather because people in power in the US saw how they could build their system of power on top of a new energy system. The shift to renewables will be similar. Renewables have many advantages:

The original source - the Sun, for the most part, but also Wind - is essentially limitless.

We don't need to do anything to access the source - it comes to us! Therefore, no transportation and other logistical costs to bring the raw inputs to the point of production.

Similarly, energy consumption can be close to the point of consumption (for Solar for sure, less so for Wind and even less so for Hydo) so smaller distribution costs.

There was a time when people thought nuclear energy will make energy too cheap to meter, but it might well be that nuclear is only one of the many renewables that will make energy too cheap to meter, and therefore, an energy transition of abundance has an entirely different logic from an energy transition based on climate fear. And finally: renewables offer a chance for genuine energy sovereignty, where consumers at every scale - from village to nation - have direct control over their energy sources.

Then again, maybe not, especially if we are all dependent on Chinese suppliers of renewable technologies.

Either way, the geopolitics of energy is about to go through a transition. Today's Daily Planet is the first of two on energy geopolitics.

The geopolitical fight to come over green energy

The struggle for sustainable energy will soon put China, the US and Europe on a geopolitical collision course. But moving away from fossil fuels is a Herculean task, and a greener politics will not transcend tragedy.