The energy transition: a reality check

Governments, mainly in Europe and the United States, are vigorously enacting policies directed at achieving an “energy transition” away from society’s primary dependence on hydrocarbons. But data, not aspirations, show that such a goal is not feasible in any meaningful timeframe. This chapter shows that physical realities invalidate the energy-transition plans laid out by governments and NGOs around the world and that over-reliance on wind and solar energy creates unsurmountable problems linked to six areas: consumer costs, velocity of infrastructure expansion, materials intensity of alternatives, minerals cost inflation, minerals and embodied emissions, and geopolitical supply concentration.