Record-high natural gas prices are fueling an energy crunch ahead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to power shortages in parts of the world.
Anne-Sophie Corbeau, an energy policy researcher at the University of Columbia, believes the ongoing energy crisis could affect renewables and the broader energy transition in a couple of ways.
On one hand, developing countries eyeing a switch from coal to natural gas to support higher penetration of renewables may be dissuaded by higher gas prices. On the other, the energy crunch could be proving once-and-for-all that natural gas is losing its role as a transition fuel, and that it’s time to rapidly scale renewables and battery storage for resiliency and reliability.
