The link between riots and clean energy

To be topical this week, it is interesting to look at what happens when a riot happens.

To create a fire you need a spark and the fuel.

The spark may be an event or an individual or two, but the fuel is the opinion of the masses.

The masses need to be primed for the event that will ignite them, and it is almost impossible for any individual to prime the masses – it is always reflective of an overall trend.

A couple of years ago we had ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, looming Copenhagen negotiations and a general feeling that we had to do something feeding our willingness for change.

We pretty much all expected an outcome, and rightly so.  We were the fuel ready to ignite to go down the path towards a cleaner energy future.

Then what happened – nothing- Copenhagen fizzled, and then we had the global financial crisis (or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods).

There is a lot of goodwill left in the general population, but it is not so blindly in favour of immediate change. It has cooled a fair bit.

People are looking for answers that make sense. Let’s face it, not many people really understand how things actually work at a system level, so they are looking for answers in their day to day lives.

This is why focus on clean energy technologies is now coming in fits and starts. People are chasing the next big thing that will make the difference, and then moving on rapidly.

This is pretty much the same attitude that they have for new restaurants. The high initial patronage is due to the novelty factor, but you can’t keep them all as many rapidly move on to the next new restaurant.

When the general public and the media are focussing on you and your technology my advice would be to raise all the funds you possibly can as you may not be so blessed again for years.

As the spark you can’t create a fire without fuel, no matter how bright you are.

Note: I work as a project and energy economist with companies and governments on geosequestration,wind, geothermal, hydro, wave, transmission networks, coal seam gas, coal,and more. The views expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not represent the views of any organisation that I do work for.