Energy transition, a need for the future

Featuring 14 articles, ranging from political matters and domestic and international legal issues to the technology that still needs to be created and implemented to guarantee the transition process, this edition also includes specific cases and data on how the transition is taking place in countries such as Austria, Portugal and Brazil, emphasising the importance of state involvement to ensure the processes go ahead in the most positive manner possible.

The lawyers Joana Abreu and Catarina Ferreira explain, in their article on “Electricity production from renewable sources in Portugal”, that renewable energy projects have been promoted in our country since the 1990s due to both the presence of “abundant renewable resources and the public policies and legislative and regulatory stability in Portugal” in recent decades. However, according to Edmar de Almeida, a professor of economics at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University Institute of Economics, Luciano Losekann, a professor of economics at Fluminense Federal University, and William Clavijo, a researcher at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University Department of Energy Economics, in their study published in RE – “Dealing with the Technical and Economic Challenges of Energy Transition: Lessons from the Brazilian Experience”, one of the main challenges of the process is the lack of mature technologies to support the transition. “This implies uncertainty and the need to create and implement policies to encourage technological activity and investment in renewable energies”, argue the authors.

INTEGRATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Rodrigo Amaro e Silva, a researcher at the University of Lisbon School of Sciences, says that “photovoltaic (PV) generation has undergone sustained growth in recent years due to technological developments and economies of scale, and that artificial intelligence (AI) may play a major role in this trend, “resulting in a high penetration of this clean energy technology in an economical, efficient and safe way”. Alberto Saavedra, in his article on “The cross-fertilisation of the Energy Union and the Digital Single Market”, defends the integration of intelligent digital technologies in the different areas of the energy system, thereby ensuring Europe is at the forefront of the transition to a more consumer-centered product and service model”.
The role of taxation in energy transition is highlighted by Fernanda Marques, who argues that it may come to play an essential role in energy transition in the EU, giving rise to revenue that can be channeled into the process. Given the interests and stakeholders involved, including citizens, companies and governments, and due to the fact “the importance of the energy sector and its unique characteristics require a means of dealing with legal disputes that is swift, appropriate and specialised”, António Monteiro, a professor at the Nova School of Law, underlines the fact that arbitration will be the best means of settling conflicts in this area.

STORAGE SOLUTIONS

The latest edition of RE provides examples of the advances being made in energy transition in different areas and locations around the world, in sectors from production to waste disposal. Nevertheless, there is still plenty to be done for energy transition to actually occur. We only need to remember the lack of incentives for electric mobility, highlighted in one of the articles in the publication, and that we need to find, for example, appropriate Electric Energy Storage (EES) solutions to offset the volatility in the supply of solar and wind energy, as Sebastian Lüning, head geologist at New Ventures states towards the end of this edition of Revista de Energia. “They need to have mass storage capacity to supply entire countries for several days to weeks during interruptions in the supply of renewable energy, be economical and have minimal loss”, he says, adding that major research initiatives in this area are currently underway across the globe.