According to India’s Power and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh, the global energy crisis is accelerating the transition to renewable sources and hastening the end of fossil fuels’ dominance.
Renewables coupled with energy storage are now cheaper than coal after the fuel’s price spiked in recent months, and fossil sources are also suffering from a lack of investment in new production, Singh said in a speech at the Sydney Energy Forum on Wednesday.
Singh stated, “This will actually accelerate the energy transition.” “Once you have viable round-the-clock renewables, that is, renewables plus storage, then fossil fuels will become obsolete.”
According to Singh, the turmoil in the global energy sector that has caused shortages in some nations and sent power and fuel prices soaring has multiple causes and is not solely due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“This is a crisis that has been brewing for some time” and has been exacerbated by factors such as underinvestment in supply and producers’ efforts to increase margins, he said.
The energy crisis began roughly six months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine due to “preemptive underinvestment” in coal, natural gas, and oil, according to Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global Inc., who spoke at the conference.
“The next few months could become significantly worse,” Yergin stated. “Partly because markets are so tight,” he said, “and also because Vladimir Putin wants to use natural gas as a weapon to create economic hardship, bolster populist parties, and weaken the alliance opposing his invasion of Ukraine.”
