A BLOG ABOUT WHERE WE'RE AT IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION (ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING)
When society is in any transition, there’s a certain feeling of open-endedness. Until it’s done, how can we really know if it’s really happening? Indeed, this feeling of open-endedness is what motivates my daily grind; I want to see a specific outcome and I’m putting my shoulder to the wheel to make it happen. But this feeling can be tiresome and the reporting can feel myopic.
I tend to write blogs that are “thinky.” Blogs that explain an issue, provide context, and explore nuance. Actually I just wrote a blog about this liminal feeling regarding the transition to solar in Michigan. This format feels safer than saying a big, optimistic thing with a big, shameless grin.
But sometimes I want to write that big, optimistic piece with a big, shameless grin. A blog that isn’t really about an individual story. A blog that’s all feeling, less nuance, and completely devoid of statistics. A blog that’s just a waymarker; a prediction. I’m craving a certainty that nobody else is going to give, and a timeline that no particular number of articles about heat pumps can guarantee.
So where are we in the energy transition? Today, I’m certain that we’re in the thick of it. And I just wanted to tell you that
This. Energy. Transition. Is. Happening.
Right now.
Ah, I feel better 🙂
I get these articles in my inbox every day about the nitty gritty details of the energy transition. And articles with charts; year-to-year comparisons. Look, it’s the news, I get it. These are individual stories about individual things, right? Events. And three similar events make a trend, but “this thing seems to really be happening” is not a newsworthy article. Or, at least, not without a chart.
Maybe that’s what blogs are for. We can be a little less specific, and a little more grandiose. Maybe it’s just nice to write something without a chart sometimes. Call me a luddite. Maybe I read too much about the energy transition.
This morning I got two more such articles in my inbox from Canary Media, which are two of several dozen I’ve received in each of these topic areas in the last year. The first is about how great heat pumps are, and the second is about how utility-scale energy production and storage is going green.
They’re interesting stories in their own right. But I’ve just seen so. many. similar. articles. I wonder how I can share all these with you in a meaningful way. Then I just sit on them forever, or say nothing. I definitely don’t say the big thing.
So today, it’s important for me to call out the trend rather than zoom in on the details.
Today I just want to say the big thing.
It’s happening.
The end.