Energy Options Network

ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATIVE ZERO-CARBON SOLUTIONS TODAY

FOR A SAFER TOMORROW

WE FACE AN UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGE

DOUBLE THE WORLD'S ENERGY SUPPLY WHILE ZEROING OUT EMISSIONS BY 2050

Scale of Primary Global Energy by Fuel Consumption (2019)

Decarbonization Chart

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020

Coal Worldwide
Natural Gas

Half of the world’s 7 billion people are currently living in energy poverty.

Fossil fuel use (coal, oil, gas) is larger now than at any time in world history, with energy use expected to double by 2050.

In 2019, global carbon emissions reached a record high.

While coal use is declining in the United States and Europe, that is not the case in most parts of the world. For example, coal continues to generate two-thirds of China's carbon pollution.

Also in 2019, natural gas was the planet’s fastest growing fossil fuel. While seen as a “bridge fuel” replacing coal in the US, throughout the rest of the world it is mainly providing new energy and not displacing coal at all.

Stanford University's 2019 Global Carbon Project

Coal Growth

Source: Bloomberg NEF.

Even in projections of massive growth of renewables, a majority of primary energy is still fossil in 2050

Energy Projections

Meanwhile current and pledged global policies barely bend the curve

Pledged Global Policies

Source: Nature

MISSION

Energy Options Network (EON) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to multiply and accelerate Transformative Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions needed to deeply reduce fossil fuel use. While we applaud the growth of all ‘climate scale’ zero carbon technologies, we believe that solutions outside of
today’s more mainstream portfolio will be essential to achieve
deep decarbonization by 2050.

    '35% of the cumulative CO2 emissions reductions needed to shift to a sustainable path come from technologies currently at the prototype or demonstration phase. A further 40% of the reductions rely on technologies not yet commercially deployed on a mass-market scale. This calls for urgent efforts to accelerate innovation.' 
    -IEA Clean Energy Innovation Report, July 2020

    PUBLISHED WORK

    OUR TEAM

    Tracey Durning

    Tracey Durning

    Founding CEO
    Preston Carter

    Preston Carter

    Chief Technology Architect
    Nigel Gormly

    Nigel Gormly

    Senior Advisor
    Andre Sylvester

    Andre Sylvester

    Senior Advisor

    ADVISORY BOARD

    CONTACT

    Targeted thought leadership

    EON focuses on educating and advising key global actors able to tangibly help advance Transformative Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions. It is not focused on informing the general public.

    Actors include innovative developers, global energy companies, governments committed to deep decarbonization, think tanks, philanthropists, investment entities, and policy-focused nonprofits.

    Targeted thought leadership

    EON continuously scans for promising opportunities and conducts in-depth technical and economic assessments of potential Transformative Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions, then uses that information to design acceleration plans.

    EON engages relevant actors – from very early stage technology developers to very large existing players such as oil and gas majors. Activities include streamlining business models, identifying solutions to technical challenges, identifying potential markets, and making key strategic introductions.

    Targeted thought leadership

    Innovation is a term typically applied to technology, however EON believes that innovative thinking about energy system design, how a technology moves along the supply chain, and expanding markets is equally as important.

    Why? Cost, reach, timeline. For a technology or entire sector to be plausible as a Transformative Zero-Carbon Energy Solutions it must be economically competitive with fossil fuels (without subsidies) within the next two decades or so.

    Energy Options Network’s mission is to multiply and accelerate transformative zero carbon technology options available for large-scale, affordable, market-based decarbonization of the global economy over a wide range of future scenarios.

    Each element of our mission statement deserves explanation:

    Multiply and accelerate: Because we cannot predict future energy demand or the amount and timing of associated CO2 emissions reduction needed with any precision, we must rapidly develop a more robust set of zero-carbon energy technology solutions than is currently available to cover the broad and uncertain cloud of possible futures.

    Transformative energy technology options: Large-scale change cannot occur unless the solutions are real possibilities that are functionally adequate and demonstrated.

    Available: The solutions must be ready to be broadly implemented, at commercial scale, commercial risk levels, and commercially financeable.

    Large-Scale: The global economy is likely to grow by a factor of four by 2050, and global energy demand could potentially grow by a factor of 10 this century. We need energy solutions that can be deployed faster, and at a larger scale, than any energy technology has been in history.

    Affordable: No solution will ultimately be able to achieve the necessary scale unless it is affordable. Solutions need to be either economically competitive with carbon-emitting alternatives or have sufficiently small incremental costs to make the policy drivers needed to deploy them politically feasible. Even if there were a consensus around policy backed by real political will, we would still need to use the power of the market to make changes of the necessary scope. Targeted policies can support this process, but policy cannot be relied upon to be the primary driver of large-scale deployment for the foreseeable future.

    Decarbonization: To stabilize climate at moderate levels of warming, global CO2 emissions will need to eventually drop to virtually zero, in spite of expected massive growth in the world economy and concomitant energy demand.

    Global: Solutions must be available for the many different contexts beyond today’s developed world. Nearly all population growth and at least three-quarters of energy demand growth this century will occur in developing countries. Political, cultural, economic, and energy resource contexts will vary widely across those regions, requiring energy technology solutions appropriate to diverse contexts.

    Economy: Massive growth of the global economy may well be a precondition for population stabilization, as has been suggested in recent research. The sooner this wealth is generated, the lower the global peak population number and associated energy demand is likely to be.

    Wide range of future scenarios: The many climate science uncertainties today preclude reliable predictions of global impacts resulting from significantly increased GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Large uncertainties exist about future energy demand due to variables such as population and economic growth, increases in per capita energy consumption, and other factors. These combined uncertainties suggest that the sensible approach is to quickly develop a set of affordable energy technology solutions that can solve the problem over the full range of future scenarios: high to low population growth, fast to slow economic growth, high to low energy intensity, slower or faster decarbonization, severe to moderate climate forcing, and moderate to severe climate effects. In summary, we need to plan for the worst, while hoping for the best.