About one week ago, MIT hosted its annual Energy Conference. I was in attendance for most of the conference. I was able to attend panel discussion about supply chains, electric vehicles, and the future of China as a clean technology powerhouse. In addition, I saw the three keynote lectures and a panel about clean technology investing.
I was impressed by the conference overall. The organization for a student-run event was stellar.
As for the content, I found all of the lectures and panel discussions to be very informative, but not particularly incendiary. And really, that’s probably a good thing given how serious the energy problem is.
This brings me to my take home message from the conference: What is the energy problem?
There is a huge number of people, a huge amount of energy, and a huge pile of money being spent on the “energy problem”. But the real issue seems to be that the future is very uncertain with regard to energy. Oil production may be peaking, but coal is still plentiful, especially in China, India, and the USA. When will the market for clean energy become profitable? Until people know the answer to this question, the clean technology sector is unlikely to make in-roads on a large-scale in the energy sector.
If you can predict what the future of energy entails, you might want to inform the “experts” in the field, who all seem to disagree with each other. From my perspective, the uncertainty of the future is paralyzing progress on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. This uncertainty stems from a combination of a lack of government regulation, a lack of a consumer demand, and a lack of economic profitability of new technologies.
I’ll address these issues more in future posts, but I cannot guarantee clear solutions. Until one aspect of the situation takes the lead (be it governance, consumer attitude, or economics), little measurable progress will be made.