Tackling Energy Challenges

 

Since 2022, the world is navigating the equilibrium phase of a new economic transition model. This global economic shift is influencing the energy mix, food systems, and geopolitical/military dynamics.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

Multinational corporations and cross-border organizations are currently challenging the Westphalian order established in Europe in the 17th century after the Thirty Years’ War and extended globally after World War II. This challenge is driven by several factors: the aging populations in developed countries and China compared to the youthful populations in Africa and South Asia, the slowdown in global economic growth, the shift of industrial production to Asia, and the accelerated technological progress that fuels new activities but disrupts existing economies.

From the Book Cause and Effect (in greek, edition in english in 2025)

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

Additionally, the rise of religious and nationalist movements and the idealistic orientation of many environmental movements, particularly regarding industrial pollution, highlight the inability of governments to manage or adapt to changes in an increasingly open world. As a result, we are heading towards increasing tensions among major states as they seek to expand or defend their spheres of influence.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

The term “energy transition” reflects only a subset of the broader global economic upheavals. This transition is fundamentally economic, directly impacting the energy mix based on the economic conditions affecting each part of the energy cost chain, from extraction to delivery to the final consumer. This phenomenon is not new; for millennia, renewable energy sources such as the sun, water, wind, and wood have been the primary energy sources

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

Historically, the configuration of the energy mix has followed the principle of high usage of the preceding energy source to establish the next one. For instance, wood consumption supported the development of coal as a fuel, which took about a century to supply 25% of the world’s energy consumption. Similarly, during the transition from coal to oil, coal consumption increased for metallurgy, oil infrastructure construction, and chemical processing of oil. It took oil around forty years to cover 25% of the world’s energy consumption.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

This pattern is somewhat repeated with oil versus gas and more recently with hydrocarbons supporting the intermittent contribution of photovoltaic panels and wind turbines to the electricity grid globally. Notably, wind and solar power have yet to achieve a 5% share in the global energy mix.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

The introduction of renewables was intended, among other things, to support commercial and economic objectives, with carbon dioxide emissions being the main argument for the claimed energy transition to renewables for at least twenty years. However, the current geographical dispersion of infrastructure, the proliferation of renewable installations and the absence of large-scale storage of electricity do not guarantee an economic distribution of electricity and cause additional CO2 emissions.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

This is one of the main challenges for the current renewable energy industry. If massive, economically viable electricity storage solutions with minimal environmental impact are developed within the next decade, the growth of today’s conventional renewable energy sources could continue.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

Ultimately, the future of energy will hinge on the pace of development and societal acceptance of nuclear fission and, eventually, nuclear fusion. In the meantime, oil and gas will continue to be used as long as people can afford to buy refined products and hydrocarbon derivatives at prices that enable producers to continue production.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

Greece, as part of the European framework, remains focused on tourism and transit, aspiring to become a key EU service provider for electricity transmission from renewable energy sources (RES) and gas from the South-Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. Only recently has the country recognized its strategic geographical position as the westernmost end of the Eastern Mediterranean and the easternmost of the Western Mediterranean.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα

 

A hesitant approach to energy independence, coupled with previously overlooked potential domestic oil and gas deposits, and a fervent commitment to combating climate change, have driven the significant growth of photovoltaic and wind installations. These installations, however, were primarily imported from Northern Europe and now from China. The rapid phase-out of lignite, without considering innovative carbon capture and utilization solutions as seen in other countries, has shaped Greece’s national energy management over the past decade.

From the Book Cause and Effect

(2024 in greek, edition in english mid-2025)

Αίτιο και Αιτιατό: Οικονομική Μετάβαση και Επιπτώσεις στο Ενεργειακό Μείγμα