{"id":38568,"date":"2023-08-04T20:41:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T00:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=38568"},"modified":"2023-08-09T01:13:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T05:13:58","slug":"proof-of-peak-natural-gas-but-climate-innovation-funding-is-still-challenging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/proof-of-peak-natural-gas-but-climate-innovation-funding-is-still-challenging\/","title":{"rendered":"Proof of Peak Natural Gas but Climate Innovation Funding is Still Challenging"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to Aug\/Sept 2023 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

Natural Gas is on the move \u2014 edging down year-on-year \u2014 while renewable energy takes center stage around the world once and for all.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Politicians blowing the winds of trade wars are not the only impediment to climate solutions. Times are tough out there for entrepreneurs not selling something that pays back in two years or less.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether inflation is still going to go up or not, the price of debt has already led to an increase in the levelized cost of wind and solar in 2022.\u00a0This was the first time in a long time that\u00a0<\/span>financial and investment company Lazard has recorded<\/span><\/a>\u00a0this increase in renewable energy cost against the macro trend of declining electricity prices.<\/span><\/p>\n

And for early stage startups who are yet to ship a product or build a project, the prospects of venture capital are a long way from their highs in 2021. While the \u201cclimate tech VC\u201d scene dipped less \u2014 just -3%, compared to the broader venture capital market, which plummeted a shocking -53% in 2022 \u2014 it is still hard to get funded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Industries<\/p>\n

That is why it\u2019s good to remind ourselves of the game changing project we\u2019re undertaking and that it won\u2019t be smooth sailing displacing something as big as the fossil fool industrial complex! We\u2019re making history by shifting electricity to clean sources and then electrifying everything. Historically speaking, such profound change is hard won.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ember in the ashes of 2022<\/span><\/h2>\n

The apparently Sisyphean task of meeting new electricity demand with clean generation may actually happen this year or next. According to energy thinktank\u00a0<\/span>Ember<\/span><\/a>\u2018s excellent<\/span>\u00a0electricity review of 2022<\/span><\/a>, an incredible 80% of all new demand growth for electricity (694TWh) was met by new wind and solar generation (557TWh).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The juice we use now has the lowest carbon emissions ever<\/span><\/h2>\n

We\u2019re using a record amount of electricity here on Earth but while emissions are up, the energy mix is changing significantly. Indeed, wind and solar were up 19% year-on-year from 2021, whereas coal was up just 1.1% and natural gas use actually plateaued (thanks, Putin). As a result, the juice we use now has the lowest carbon emissions ever \u2014 436 gCO2 per kilowatt-hour. In other words, we are up in volume but a whole lot cleaner per unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, we are pushing the energy transition boulder to the very top and soon will let it roll on down the other side! If renewables deployment continues at the rates of recent years, clean power growth will exceed electricity demand growth in 2023. This is a big turning point that we should celebrate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ember<\/p>\n

Goodbye Natural Gas?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But our work is far from done. And relying on gravity to do the work on the downslope may not be fast enough especially with the countervailing forces from vested interest. You may have noticed me writing that \u201cgas plateaued\u201d in 2022 by which I mean to say it fell so marginally as to make it look flat (-0.2% in 2022).<\/span><\/p>\n

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