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Infrastructure Investor - Keynote Interview

Exciting energy transition assets mean thinking small - Interview with Dr. Barbara Weber, Mai 2021

Extract from the Article:

Energy transition assets such as batteries, EV charging and green hydrogen are often only available in small packages, which requires managers able to build platforms from smaller assets, explains Barbara Weber, founding partner of B Capital Partners.

How does the energy transition fit into the trends shaping infrastructure?

We see three major trends shaping infrastructure investment today – climate change, technological advancement and urbanisation. All these trends are interconnected and all require sustainable infrastructure. For example, the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and move to zero-carbon societies requires technologically advanced solutions – such as battery storage, which can enable growing cities to regulate volatile power demand and supply, or green energy generation for the purposes of,for instance, charging electric vehicles. These mega-trends feed into more specific themes in the energy transition. A December 2020 report from the consultant Rystad Energy highlights three key areas: carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen and battery storage. Like the identified mega-trends, these themes are highly interconnected. Rystad Energy elaborates how batteries compete with hydrogen, and both compete with carbon capture. The reality is that there won’t be one winner, as all these sectors will have an important role to play in helping us get to net-zero. All sub-sectors are somehow connected by digital infrastructure,which is an essential part of the energy transition and the development of smart cities. At the end of the day, new infrastructure is decentralising and we have to connect the dots with data. Energy networks, smart lighting, smart meters and autonomous vehicles on the road all need data connections to communicate where they are and what their status is. Even for our windfarms,we receive status information every second, connected via data networks. When you build decentralised systems, data infrastructure is essential.

 Exciting energy transition assets mean thinking small (PDF/312.7 KB)