Since publication of the articles referenced in Part 1, awareness of the complex challenge that we face has been increasing in wider society. Yet, real progress is slow and still insufficient to meet climate goals (BP 2019). Ringrose (2017, 2019) talks about three fundamental and necessary pillars for sustainable change; environmental, social and economic.
Our aim is to help accelerate the global energy transition, by deploying Gas2Wire. Whether it is a new field or a repurposing project at an existing field development, our approach is to maximise the economic recovery of national natural gas resources, whilst generating power with the lowest possible carbon intensity – offsetting coal, liquid hydrocarbons and less efficient sources of natural gas.
Returning to the three pillars for sustainable change:
- The environmental implications/factors are clear (and no longer disputed as they were only a few years ago).
- Social awareness/factors and a general willingness are now present in at least in parts of Europe and other advanced economies.
- Yet, economic driving factors are not. For the most part, stimuli are still required to increase the rate and diversity of change.
Gas2Wire can contribute and already offers the potential for significant returns to investors and allows the third economic pillar to be satisfied. Further, the offshore platforms involved in our projects have the option to become host to a range of renewable energy solutions, each of which can benefit from the power infrastructure we install – a form of economic stimuli. In doing so, the useful life of the offshore assets involved in our projects may be further extended.