There is much talk of 2016 as a year of transformation for the energy industry. But Simon Hobday, Partner at Osborne Clarke LLP and POWER-GEN Europe and Renewable Energy World Europe 2016 Advisory Board member, thinks there is work to be done. Here he argues that the transition to a flexible energy future requires governments to incentivise the uptake of enabling technologies such as energy storage.
In eighteenth century France, a man named Tarrare was famed for his hunger. Tarrare was always ravenous and no matter what he ate, his appetite was never sated.
Those of us working in today’s energy industry can relate. In periods of high demand, there is always pressure to produce more. The industry is locked in a race against demand, struggling to make supply match up.
But is this right? Are attempts to generate ever greater quantities of power any more sustainable than Tarrare’s futile attempts to satisfy his hunger with ever greater quantities of food?
Would it not be better to make more intelligent use of the power capacity that is available than to continue growing the industry’s footprint?
