Sources – Innovations are needed

1 “In all cases, governments will have a critical influence in the direction of the future energy system. Under current and planned policies, modeled in the New Policies Scenario, energy demand is set to grow by more than 25% to 2040, requiring more than $2 trillion a year of investment in new energy supply.” International Energy Agency; Official Website; World Energy Outlook 2018 – Press Release; 13.11.2018

2 “Electricity markets are also undergoing a unique transformation with higher demand brought by the digital economy, electric vehicles and other technological change. As part of its deep-dive into the electricity sector this year, WEO 2018 also examines what impact of higher electrification in transportation, buildings and industry.” International Energy Agency; Official Website; World Energy Outlook 2018 – Press Release; 13.11.2018

3 “From 2006 to 2016, BEA estimates that digital economy real value added grew at an average annual rate of 5.6 percent, outpacing the average annual rate of growth for the overall economy of 1.5 percent.” Bureau of Economic Analysis – U.S. Department of Commerce; Official Website; Defining and Measuring the Digital Economy; March 2018

4 “It means almost 1 billion electric cars on the road by 2040, compared to 4 million today.” International Energy Agency; YouTube; World Energy Outlook 2018; 13.11.2018

5 “In the New Policies Scenario, rising incomes and an extra 1.7 billion people, mostly added to urban areas in developing economies, push up global energy demand by more than a quarter to 2040. The increase would be around twice as large if it were not for continued improvements in energy efficiency, a powerful policy tool to address energy security and sustainability concerns. All the growth comes from developing economies, led by India. As recently as 2000, Europe and North America accounted for more than 40% of global energy demand and developing economies in Asia for around 20%. By 2040, this situation is completely reversed.” International Energy Agency; Official Website; World Energy Outlook 2018 – Executive Summary; 2018

6 Inflation-adjusted crude oil prices are around 50 USD from 2016 to 2018, were at around 100 USD from 2011 to 2013 and were around 22 USD from 1965-1970. Macrotrends; Official Website; Crude Oil Prices – 70 Year Historical Chart; 11.01.2019

7 With the help of this source and the one displayed above, I calculated an inflation-adjusted price from 2000 to 2017, which shows an increase of 7.5%. U.S. Energy Information Administration; Official Website; Table 5.3. Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers; 26.12.2018

8 With a few ticks upwards and downwards, the inflation-adjusted average retail price of electricity (in cents per KWH, including taxes) has stayed around the 9 cent mark. U.S. Energy Information Administration; Official Website; Annual Energy Review; 27.09.2012

9 “Electricity and gas prices for manufacturing businesses and households have increased sharply in recent years and indications are that prices will continue to increase. The underlying cause of these increases is different for electricity and gas and the contribution of each factor is also different for each state and territory. … In real terms—that is, taking into account the general increase in prices across all goods and services—prices for households increased on average by 72% for electricity and 54% for gas in the 10 years to June 2013.” Parliament of Australia; Official Website; Energy prices—the story behind rising costs; 2014

10 “Did you know that the electricity bill for households in Greece increased more (+64 %) over the last seven years (2010-2017) than in any other EU country?” Eurostat; Official Website; Energy prices in the EU, 2017; 27.11.2017

11 “Europe’s households spend a varying amount of their income on energy, depending on Member State’s overall household expenditure. In 2015, 9.8% of the expenditure of poorest ten percent of households was spent on energy, excluding transport. Middle income households spent 6% of their expenditure on energy, and higher income households less still.” European Commission; Official Website; Energy prices and costs in Europe 2018; 9.1.2019

12 The inflation-adjusted average wholesale price of electricity in China has decreased by more than 55% in the year 2014 compared to the mid-90s. China Energy Group – Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division; Official Website; KEY CHINA ENERGY STATISTICS 2016; 2016

13 “Global electricity prices in 2018, by select country (in U.S. dollars per kilowatt hour): Germany 0.33; … United Kingdom 0.22; Japan 0.22; … France 0.19; … United States 0.13; Brazil 0.13; South Korea 0.12; Canada 0.11; Indonesia 0.1; South Africa 0.09; India 0.08; China 0.08” Statista; Official Website; Electricity prices worldwide by country 2018; 2019

14 “The two pollutants were found to cause an average 1.1 million premature deaths in the country annually, about 1,000 in Hong Kong. Around 20 million tons of rice, wheat, maize and soybean are also lost to exposure to ozone each year.” South China Morning Post; Official Website; Air pollution is killing 1 million people and costing Chinese economy 267 billion yuan a year, research from CUHK shows; 02.10.2018

15 “Coal, Lignite Consumption in 2017: China 3,607 Mt; India 953 Mt; United States 649 Mt; Russia 232 Mt; Germany 222 Mt…” Enerdata; Official Website; Global Energy Statistical Yearbook 2018; 2019

16 (translated) “The two lignite power stations in Europe with the highest CO2 emissions each have a higher CO2 emission per year than the yearly CO2 emission of the whole country of Slovenia.” Spiegel Online; Official Website; Deutsche Kraftwerke sind die schmutzigsten in Europa ; 02.04.2014

17 “Fossil fuels, as the name suggests, are very old. North Sea oil deposits are around 150 million years old, whilst much of Britain’s coal began to form over 300 million years ago. Although humans probably used fossil fuels in ancient times, as far back as the Iron Age, it was the Industrial Revolution that led to their wide-scale extraction. And in the very short period of time since then – just over 200 years – we’ve consumed an incredible amount of them, leaving fossil fuels all but gone and the climate seriously impacted. Fossil fuels are an incredibly dense form of energy, and they took millions of years to become so. And when they’re gone, they’re gone pretty much forever.” Ecotricity; Official Website; The end of fossil fuels; 19.01.2019

18 “Crude oil, coal and gas are the main resources for world energy supply. The size of fossil fuel reserves and the dilemma that “when non-renewable energy will be diminished” is a fundamental and doubtful question that needs to be answered. This paper presents a new formula for calculating when fossil fuel reserves are likely to be depleted and develops an econometrics model to demonstrate the relationship between fossil fuel reserves and some main variables. The new formula is modified from the Klass model and thus assumes a continuous compound rate and computes fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas of approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively. This means that coal reserves are available up to 2112, and will be the only fossil fuel remaining after 2042.” Shahriar Shafiee & Erkan Topal; Energy Policy – Volume 37, Issue 1; When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?; January 2009

19 “A total of 573 deaths have been certified as “disaster-related” by 13 municipalities affected by the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.” The Daily Yomiuri Online; Official Website; 573 deaths ‘related to nuclear crisis’; 05.02.2012

20 “The range of estimates of excess mortality resulting from the Chernobyl accident spans a wide range depending upon precisely what is taken into account. The most recent epidemiological evidence, published under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences, suggests that the scale of the problems could be very much greater than predicted by studies published to date. For example, the 2005 IAEA report predicted that 4000 additional deaths would result from the Chernobyl accident. The most recently published figures indicate that in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine alone the accident resulted in an estimated 200,000 additional deaths between 1990 and 2004.” Greenpeace; The Chernobyl Catastrophe – Consequences on Human Health; Executive Summary; 2006

21 “Damage caused by the Chernobyl disaster is estimated at some $235 billion. However, the overall amount of money that Belarus and the international community invested into the recovery amounts to just 8 percent of the total damage.” Belarus Foreign Ministry; CHERNOBYL disaster; QUICKLY and BRIEFLY; April 2009

22 “Japan’s government on Friday nearly doubled its projections for costs related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion), increasing pressure on Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) (9501.T) to step up reform and improve its performance.” Reuters; Official Website; Japan nearly doubles Fukushima disaster-related cost to $188 billion; 09.12.2016

23 “In addition, the tsunami triggered the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. To protect residents in areas surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Plant, the government established evacuation zones that required approximately 154,000 people to evacuate from restricted areas.” Reconstruction Agency; Official Website; Great East Japan Earthquake; 12.06.2016

Sources – Liberalization of markets

24 “There are still social, political and geographical barriers that the Asian region is faced with when it comes to deregulation in the power sector. The sector, many dominated in the region by the presence of state owned enterprises (SOE), is often protected by rigid state policies on service institutions and market structures, explains Venkatachalam. The monopoly of SOEs in energy production and distribution and outdated legislation make deregulation impossible in many countries. The presence of pervasive fuel subsidies and other cross subsidies to power generation stand in the way of competitive market development.” Engerati; Official Website; Energy deregulation: Transforming Asia’s energy sector; 06.04.2017

25 “Currently, electricity is produced in a centralised fashion using massive power plants. Once generated, it is distributed over long distances to end-users. Whilst functional, this system is inefficient because: 1. Centralisation reduces competition and tends towards monopolistic practices 2. Distribution costs can add up to 30% to the price of energy 3. Fossil-fuel fired energy plants emit large amounts of pollution, including greenhouse gases, and nuclear facilities incur high, long-term waste processing costs. There is a need to replace the global, centralised model of energy production but until now, this hasn’t been possible because of the high clean energy production costs and the inaccessibility of the energy markets.” Solar Bankers; Official Whitepaper; The world needs Solar Bankers; 2017

26 “The European Union’s forefathers had one simple idea in mind: strengthen relationships between European states to make war impossible. They believed – perhaps over-optimistically – that economic integration would inevitably lead to political integration, in other words the construction of a federal Europe. Gradually, every industry was integrated into the common market. In 1952, steel and coal were the first with the ECSC, followed by atomic energy with Euratom in 1957. At the end of the 1990s, it was natural gas and electricity’s turn to join the common market. The aim of liberalisation is simple: contributing to bringing peace to the continent by creating a common European market for electricity that would enable any consumer to buy megawatt-hours from any producer, wherever they are within the EU. “ European University Institute; Official Website; Liberalisation of the European electricity markets: a glass half full; 06.04.2017

27 “Countries across the region such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore have opted for market deregulation in a bid to create sustainability. Malaysia has introduced deregulation to its gas and power sector and has paved the way for the introduction of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to the supply function of the sector, helping the government to reduce the costs and administration involved in the exploration of new natural gas fields. Thailand, as a part of International Monetary Fund and World Bank recommendations, unbundled the Electricity Generating Authority (EGAT) assets and introduced laws for market deregulation. Since 2010, it offers new financial products that target huge market capitalisation. The Philippines’s Energy Regulatory Commission facilitated the privatisation of the National Power Corporation which worked very well in the urban centres, with fully liberated markets benefitting urban consumers. However, providing services to rural markets competitively remains a challenge.” Engerati; Official Website; Energy deregulation: Transforming Asia’s energy sector; 27.04.2016

28 “Pollution and overcapacity is China’s reason for market deregulation. Pollution is a major driving force behind China’s reform as cheap coal and overcapacity encourage wasteful consumption patterns. This stands in the way of the government’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and cut pollution. China’s large scale investments in wind and solar energy are being under-utilised under the current system, which is too static to effectively incorporate fluctuating green energy generation rates, resulting in waste and the threat of power cuts. The country is a big energy consumer, representing 25% of the world’s energy consumption. Electricity distribution and transmission are critical to China’s growing economy.” Engerati; Official Website; Energy deregulation: Transforming Asia’s energy sector; 06.04.2017

29 “Japan is aiming for a complete deregulation of its retail market by 2017 with reforms in electricity and gas markets. The Fukushima event was the main driver of the energy policy being revisited. Japan initiated its electricity market deregulation process last year April and it is steadily becoming one of the world’s largest deregulated electricity markets. If successful, the change could result in a vastly modernised energy sector resulting in lower rates and a more prosperous economy overall. The deregulation could see Japan advance innovation and even become a model for the Asian region.” Engerati; Official Website; Energy deregulation: Transforming Asia’s energy sector; 06.04.2017

Sources – Crypto Opportunities