Paul Ebert, Global Technology Director, New Energy at WorleyParsons, spoke to us for this month's issue of Energy Digital new energy, renewables and growth across Africa. 

Tell us a bit about your current role at WorleyParsons. In particular, you spent time working for WorleyParsons’ business Advisian dealing with “new energy” and changes in the sector?

I work very closely with WorleyParsons’ advisory and specialist consulting subsidiary Advisian, as a specialist advisor in the area of New Energy. I very much enjoy this role, as in the last two years there has been an immense change going on in energy markets around the world, and as an advisor to my own clients I feel I can add real value in charting this.

Prior to this, I helped build our renewable energy capability globally, but it was obvious that the change going on was much bigger than just clean electricity generation – the rise of new options such as battery energy storage, electric vehicles, hydrocarbon replacement fuels, new retail models such as peer-to-peer trading and the internet of things – all pointed to a broader shift.

So, I helped the business articulate what new energy is as a concept, just how this could impact our customers and what our role could be. There is an energy transition underway and it will have fundamental impacts on many businesses and communities. WorleyParsons is traditionally a hydrocarbon-based business, a sector which remains pivotal in meeting our energy needs, but which will itself in time transition.

What fascinates you about the new energy sector?

I was initially attracted to the area of energy as I realised at a relatively young age how dependent we are on energy resources. There is immense benefit from those resources, on economies and the lives of billions of people – but there is also a cost, both socially through inequality of access, something many Africans are familiar with, and environmentally which has many aspects but the headline concern is emissions.

The question becomes how do we continue to meet our global energy demands, pull everyone out of energy poverty, and do so in way that is both commercially and environmentally sustainable?  This is hard, as our energy sectors are large, energy issues cross borders and involve issues of geopolitics, security and economic impact, and for some there is a lot to lose.

The new energy sector promises a solution to this and will ultimately sweep through our energy systems in what will be the third great energy transition the global community has seen; the first was coal and the industrial revolution, the second was oil and its role in transport, the third will be the decarbonisation of our energy systems.

Source: EnergyDigital.com