The Present: Energy – Part 5

Populations, Density, and Energy

For me, this is the reason why China and Russia will continue to gain power and influence in Africa. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China builds infrastructure in other countries and then benefits from loan repayments and capital flows as it partly owns the infrastructure. 52 African countries have signed up. Africa has 54 countries within it.

When populations grow, there is greater demand for energy. More than half of the population growth in the world by 2050 will be in Africa. The gap in energy technology in underdeveloped parts of the world will come to the forefront of this energy transition. And China and Russia will provide the infrastructure and financial aid to these underdeveloped countries to advance their energy infrastructure. Africa will want its former colonisers far from its countries. We have seen Russian flags waved in coups in Burkina Faso and Mali last year. Africa’s pivot is clear. The United States, regardless of whether it holds an African Leaders Summit or not, is isolating and choosing its friends wisely. Also, they couldn’t afford to provide the levels of infrastructure required to help even if they wanted to. They’d have to raise the debt ceiling another 79 times.

Photo by Alice Pasqual on Unsplash

My second link between population and energy is density. As we have seen with Norway and Iceland’s hydroelectric power, you have to use your environment to your advantage. Where populations are dense means less space for these renewable energy resources. These countries must play to their strengths. The UK is the 50th most population-dense country. When limited to countries with a population of over 5 million people, the UK is 20th. I will discuss the UK because it's where I live and so what I understand. The UK is surrounded by the ocean. Why the UK isn’t focusing on tidal and offshore wind as key components of their energy transition confuses me. When we have success stories in Iceland and especially Norway which has greater energy demands, the benefits of playing to the strengths of your environment will be key to a successful energy transition. If you exist in a landlocked, flat country that gets no sun or wind, don’t shut down your nuclear power plants.

---

Innovation and Energy

Moore’s Law states the number of transistors in a chip doubles about every two years. However, on a deeper level, it implies that the rate of technological innovation will grow exponentially. We appear on the cusp of a period of a plethora of technological advancements in many fields: