Anyone who says the world can’t transform overnight to fight Climate Change hasn’t been paying attention. For the last 18 months, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the world changed overnight, because it had to. Companies that had been ducking necessary investments because of cost and operational disruption—investments in things like Digital Transformation and providing remote work--suddenly found their objections obliterated by COVID. Workers learned that not only could they do their jobs at home, but now many employees around the world say they don’t want to go back to the office full time. It was a sea change, and nature was in charge. The comparison to the COP26 dialogue about the Green Transition is clear: today, the fossil industry’s narrative is that a fast shift to renewables is impossible (never mind that they’ve been saying that for 50 years). But as history has proven again and again, nothing converts the impossible to the possible as efficiently as having no other choice.
Do As Nature Does: Diversify
The argument goes that wind and solar probably can’t get us to 100% CO2-free electrical power on their own. That’s true. The sun goes down; the wind stops; and battery technology can’t fill in all the gaps. However, wind and solar don’t have to do it on their own. The ocean is an abundant source of power, covering 70% of Earth’s surface. There are waves, tides, ocean thermal conversion power, all of which can be enlisted to effect the transition.
Humans often look for single, silver bullet solutions to complex problems: monoculture farming is an example. It’s designed to simplify agriculture and increase profits, but it’s hard on the soil and creates fragility—if a disease specific to that crop strikes, a food crisis can ensue. Nature, though, engenders resiliency through diversity, ecosystems, and networks. Interdependence and balance enabled Earth to recover from, and survive, global catastrophes. We can adopt this model, creating a harmonious blend of several natural resources to increase our resilience and get us past the roadblocks hindering the Green Transition.
Wave energy is stable and predictable. The amount of power that grid operators can expect to glean from a wave park can be predicted from 5-to-14 days ahead of the time it is needed. In many densely populated places, moderate waves can provide a baseload at a price lower than the community currently pays. In most of these places, wave power parks can be paired with sun and/or wind. This provides an even larger renewable energy baseload and, in balancing the contribution of each resource, increases the value of both technologies to grid operators and to the market.
In other wave climates, a tidal energy facility, or ocean thermal energy conversion might serve more effectively. It just depends on nature’s resources in that part of the world. The focus isn’t on one company or one technology—it’s on finally learning from nature and working with diverse resources to create power without destroying the species you’re creating that power for.
Ocean Energy Tipping Point
After decades of development, several ocean energy companies are very close to commercialization. With support—in policies, subsidies, and investment—they could cross the last mile where research and development becomes commercial deployment of ocean energy. This is often the place where support is needed most. With investment and incentives, ocean energy companies such as Seabased could be producing clean electrical power in a year or two, exponentially hastening the Green Transition. Wave energy alone could theoretically produce more than 100% of the world’s current electrical consumption.
At present, we still have time to make this change without the fearsome repercussions that scientists warn are coming. We don’t know how much time. As COVID showed us, when Nature decides to change things, things change. Hopefully this time we’ll change first.