<scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 pandemic facilitating energy transition opportunities

Abstract

This perspective paper has been suggesting and discussing some of the energy transition opportunities facilitated by COVID-19 pandemics. A strong base in a cluster of innovative technologies is expected. They have been spread out of distance meeting and learning, massive home office use, the growing popularity of e-shopping, raise in e-socialising, related to this intensifying the data transmissions as 5G and considering 6G, urban and sanitary reforms, remote and robotic health monitoring and even treatment, related preference to shortening the commuting, intelligent traffic control, strengthening to favour self-driving autonomous vehicles, advanced digital manufacturing challenging remote and distance production operating, remote construction and building as remote drilling, automated waste management collection and treatment, and also applications of novel ways for deliveries as, for example, drone. Each of them is having some pros and cons related to energy consumptions. Are the beneficial features able to offset its own energy consumption and the rebound effects of increasing demand? Pandemics caused by COVID-19 spread out to most countries around the world. As the energy sector is one of the imperatives for modern society; it has been influenced considerably. Numerous studies and analyses appeared dealing with various aspects during the pandemics. However, the most decisive is going to be post-pandemic development. This is likely to shape the energy sector for some time, and it is representing both the challenges but also the opportunities. Consumer habits tend to change over time, but the COVID-19 outbreak is forcing consumers to reconfigure their lives, their habits and their spending patterns at speed and scale that the world has never seen. The Nielsen Company1 has created a global lens through which to analyse these changes and identified ways of prioritising what needs to get done, and when. He represented TYPICAL markers of these stages but are not always consistent, especially with the number of cases or deaths: (a) Proactive Health Minded Buying, (b) Reactive Health Management, (c) Pantry Preparation, (d) Quarantined Living Preparation, (e) Restricted Living, and (f) Living as Normal. However, the new normal is going to be influenced by a new experience, new discoveries and new opportunities. What does it mean for the energy sector? One strong issue is to focus on safer life preventing infections. It means a psychological move to single-use plastics.2 This means increased demand for plastics and consequently more energy for their production,3 logistics and disposal. It might also mean a psychological move to private cars with a lower exposure risk after pandemics.4 Related to that have been more stress paid to hygiene, which means more antiseptic and disinfection,5 which again means more energy and consequently waste and effluents. They are serious indications about changes in the energy supply industry,6 which can accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The other associated issues are related to energy supply and security. There has significantly arisen the importance of high capacity storage.7 Worldwide mobility is expected to shrink due to possible fearful psychology. For example, some travel enthusiasts, mostly, the senior population who used to be making a considerable part of the holidaymakers, become more hesitating to travel to foreign destinations, and it has been considerably reducing energy and emissions for the transportation.8 This can perhaps return to near normal when the situation becomes under control; however, some sentiment with seniors may remain. There has been some unwanted impact on public mass transport, where it has been not easy to prevent the infection from spreading, and the population started to return to in many cases single used cars. Many of those developments are based on “smart-city technology” which involved using smart sensors, machine learning, artificial in