Plus: VW going all-in on electric cars; Energy software & services is where the money is; A word about social innovation
Hi Everyone,
A fairly quiet week for meaningful stories, so just a few to pass along. A couple smaller highlights:
- A UK company is enabling customers to ‘hack’ the energy system with help from their Amazon Alexa.
- Seimens aims to make more money from ‘services’ than from booming German home battery storage systems.
The point of both of these is the leveraging of software/services more than hardware to make money in the energy transition. Why? Better profit margins.
What has struck you lately? Tell me what you’ve been thinking about or stories you’ve seen and why you think they’re important.
Thanks,
Peter
BNEF Talk: Understanding China’s EV Market
I had read about China’s EV market before, but now this update comes in the form of a very good 18 min video, with graphs explained by Colin McKerrracher at BloombergNEF.
However, as AXIOS reported, EVs are merely trimming oil demand growth, not reducing it.
Sorry – you’ll have to scroll down the linked page to find the video…
VW’s newish boss is going full-steam ahead with electric cars | Economist
This article offers some very important insights and take-aways. First: VW’s massive 660,000 unionized workers represent a prickly challenge for VW to navigate in a world where more jobs are being lost to robots. Combine that with VWs wholesale shift to electric vehicles that are simpler and easier for robots to build. Toss in the advent of ‘peak car’ and it all adds up to a rough ‘governance’ road ahead – one that I can’t imagine how it won’t come without big job losses.
In a supporting move, VW announced it is partnering with battery maker Northvolt to create the European Battery Union (EBU) Consortium.
Italian Oil and Gas Company Will Plant Forests to Make Up for Polluting | Bloomberg
Eni aims to be net zero by 2030 for its direct upstream emissions and its plans include planting trees in Africa on an 81,000 square kilometer area, area the size of half the state of Florida or 2.5 times Vancouver Island or 11 times the size of the Greater Toronto Area or nearly 100 times the size of Calgary.
Integrating Social Innovation into Organizations — ABSI Connect
You’re probably wondering what a post about social innovation is doing in a blog about the energy transition. Well, anyone wanting to make a difference in the world ought to become a student of social innovation. I count myself among those students, being mentored by smart people like Tori D’Avella who wrote this pithy piece about integrating social innovation into organizations. Her article offers some great pointers for those needing a quick read. I’d also recommend the book: Getting to Maybe. It is a pleasant and inspiring read for being non-fiction, with lots of great stories of social innovators navigating the challenges they were trying to tackle.
This Engineer Built a Crazy Unmanned Vehicle to Break World Records, and It Accidentally Became a Venture-Backed Startup| Inc.
Credit: Justin Caneps