Accelerating the pace of energy change

The US administration has set a goal of reducing US energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 17% in the next decade and 83% by 2050. Meeting these national energy goals will require significant changes in the ways we produce, deliver, and use energy. The identified barriers to transforming the energy supply include the scale of things, the ubiquity of energy for heat, light, and mobility, incumbency, and the longevity factor. Energy transformation requires deploying innovative technologies, and the multidecade time horizons for capital investing the energy supply business highlight the centrality of predictable return on investment. A technology must be taken from a laboratory, where investment is made in producing a fuel at a hundredth of a barrel a day, and moved through pilot facilities, demonstration, and ultimately to full-scale production and deployment.