At the 30th anniversary of the FLAME conference in Amsterdam, RBAC’s COO, James Brooks, met with energy industry colleagues to discuss the state of the energy transition, geopolitics and the role natural gas and LNG will play in a lower carbon future.
Key takeaways from FLAME 2024:
- Natural Gas and LNG will play a much bigger and longer-term role in the energy transition.
- With population expected to grow 25% by 2050, LNG will be critical to addressing energy poverty.
- The energy trilemma (affordability, security, and sustainability) is very much on people’s minds as we continue to monitor the impact of major geopolitical events.
- Western nations are still pushing big targets for a net-zero future, while countries such as China and India are emphasizing energy security in their approach.
- China has put themselves into a very strong position for providing the materials and products needed for an energy transition. This includes:
- 80% of world’s solar panel production
- 56% of battery production
- 60% global critical minerals mining
- 85% minerals processing capacity
- 90% graphite market
- 95% Gallium – chip production
- 65% Germanium – chip production
- China is utilizing more natural gas to move away from coal as a way to improve their environment as well as create more energy security.
- Hydrogen is considered an important component of the energy mix of the future, but there are still major challenges to overcome. One of which is consistent regulatory guidelines, which will help guide investments.
If we have learned anything over the past few years, we need to take into account all the points of the energy trilemma. If we focus solely on one point such as sustainability or the environment, the other points will suffer and we create unattainable targets.
