DIVERSE ENERGY MIX

A diverse mix of energy sources is key to deliver efficient and affordable energy while lowering carbon emissions.

The World Energy Mix of the future is diverse

Diversifying fuel resources is the first step to reducing carbon footprints. 

Today, the growing global economy and population mean global energy needs will increase 30%t by 2040. To answer that demand, the changing energy industry must focus on new trends: decarbonization, digital disruption, interconnectedness, and grid modernization. How? By investing in a diverse resource mix. 

The international call to limit the average global temperature increase to 2°C by 2100 means countries must drastically lessen greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades. But various scenarios developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggest that they must first build portfolios of multiple energy solutions before transitioning fully to carbon-free renewables. Today, renewables alone can’t meet our future energy needs, since most are susceptible to changes in weather and time of day.

That’s where diversification comes into play. Diversifying our energy mix to include an array of low-carbon resources such as solar, wind, hydrogen or geothermal. Today, 40% of the World's electricity runs on coal. The shift from fossil fuel sources to renewables is key to achieve global temperature increase goals by 2050, economically and in regard to the energy transition. Natural gas will have a major role play in the transition in many countries, due to the volumes required worldwide and the expected economic growth. The energy transition will also create immense employment opportunities in the years coming up

Diversification and Energy Security

Having a diverse energy mix is usually considered an important part of energy security, having multiple sources allows a country to continue without disruption if one source of energy fails.

Diversification is essential to energy security: the most common energy sources such as crude oil, coal and natural gas are all commodities and are therefore subject to market forces, political instability or conflict, which can result in interruptions to supply or exorbitant price rises. In addition, commodities are more susceptible to short term shocks resulting from geopolitical events such as conflicts and terrorist attacks. A country that imports a large amount of energy has to take into account all the factors that can disrupt the supply of energy coming from the exporting country. Diversification allows for a society to absorb a shock in one energy input such as coal by increasing the use of another such as nuclear or solar energy for example.