Chapter 6
UTILITIES INVESTING IN A RESOURCE-CONSCIOUS WORLD
The recurring challenges of resource scarcity, energy security, and environmental degradation have converged, and are changing the way mankind produces and consumes energy. Because Utilities firms play a central role in global energy supply, these changes have important implications for the sector.
Increasing competition for finite energy resources is driving up the prices of traditional energy sources, making alternatives more cost competitive. Geopolitical tensions have provided an incentive to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. And growing fear of climate change has fueled resurgent environmentalism.
In response to these challenges, governments globally are responding with public policies favoring renewable resources, energy efficiency, and conservation—and businesses and entrepreneurs are innovating new technological solutions. Private-sector investment in renewable resource development and so-called “clean” technology now tops $100 billion annually—up more than tenfold during the first decade of the twenty-first century.1 Should these trends persist, they could have profound effects on the Utilities sector, creating both economic winners and losers.
In this chapter, we’ll examine the challenges facing the Utilities sector and explore both the policy responses and the technological solutions.
ENERGY CHALLENGES
Resource scarcity, energy security, and environmental degradation are serious challenges—but they are hardly ...
