Crossroads: Contrarian views on the energy transition

Rob West’s views on the energy transition cannot by lazily pigeonholed.

The founder and CEO of Thunder Said Energy, an energy consulting firm, believes that nature-based solutions like reforestation and changes to agricultural practices could play a large role in offsetting carbon emissions – and help keep the world from becoming a wasteland. After all, West notes, anthropogenic carbon emissions are around 50 gigatons per year, but Earth’s natural carbon cycle amounts to 700 gigatons per year, meaning small changes to that natural cycle could make a large difference.

At the same time, West’s own models for the least expensive way to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 indicate a prominent role for fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, consumption of which would have to triple under his model – for use in backing up renewables and charging electric vehicles, in blue hydrogen, and in displacing coal.

On the latest edition of the Crossroads, West talks to SparkSpread North America editor Kyle Younker about his top ten controversies in the energy transition, including the optimal level of renewables in decarbonized 2050 power grids and how following the International Energy Agency’s roadmap to net zero could lead to dangerous inflation.

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