Strategies in a disruptive world
developing platforms for ecosystems in utility business
The New World Ahead
Disruptive forces are already at play around and within the energy companies. Digitalisation, electrification and industrilasation are going to change the way energy companies do business. Valrex Strategies strategy model is a hands-on way to embrace and exploit the possibilities of the transformation in the sector.
Transforming the society in a new world order
If it's true that we're headed for a new world, a world that's not globalized but more regional and more closed in terms of trade between the three global powers, then it should be apparent that production must be reestablished in the western countries. Europe will have to bring production capacity home to the European continent (excluding Russia)
This will trigger a demand for energy in a scale we’ve not seen since the early 1900. We’ve been relaying on other countries, mostly China to expand their energy production so that they can produce the thing that we need. But if that is to stop or at least reduce in scale we will have to fins ways to expand our own energy production capacity.
What has all this to do with building or transforming the future society? Well for most of the last decades the transition towards a sustainable society has been a business-as-usual discussion, i.e. the reductions of CO2 should be done with in the scopes that the UN has put forward. Scope 1, 2 and 3. That’s all fine in a world that functions as it used to do before Covid and the war in Ukraine, but the world is rapidly moving away from the once all but united world.
The only way I can see a way forward is if we as Europeans reestablish us as a major producer of advanced technology in a sustainable way but that’s going to take a lot of energy, energy that we in the new world order as Europeans struggle to find. Fossil fuels will still play a significant part, even if it’s days are numbered but Russia is out of the game for decades to come and probably the rest of the former Soviet states. The middle east is far away and will probably be tempted to sell to Asia. Our own European energy supplies are limited and therefore we must produce renewable energy in a grand scale, but that takes technology, which we have, and capital which we still have, at least for the time being. But time, we don’t have. The industrialization is going to escalade quickly, and the drivers are going to be security and competitiveness. At this moment Europe is in the race against USA first and fore most. China is of course in the race as well, but their demographics is going to take them out of the race – hopefully without starting a war.
So, to keep up and make the transition to a sustainable society we need to escalate the effort to invest in renewable energy production. If we do that it will trigger certain issues such as capital restrains, industrial production capacity to make necessary technology, engineering capacity and subsidies. The last one being a crucial political issue that Europe must solve on a inter state level so that competitiveness isn’t skewed within Europe. The fit for 55 package is a good first step but we are going to need more.
This is a lot to deal with and we have less than a decade before it’s most likely too late to do anything. Are we, as Europeans, ready for this? Can we do it? I think we can, but we have to act now and we have to act fast and we have to start with redefining the model for building our future society.
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