How to lead the energy transition is a highly actual topic. On October 12th Energy Delta Institute (EDI) organized the conference ‘Energy Transition meets Leadership’. The participants heard the German protagonist of renewable energy Hermann Scheer argue that we have to shift to renewables as soon as possible. They also heard Shell-president Peter the Wit plead for the governments to take more decisive action. The discussions were led by Catrinus Jepma, scientific director of the EDIaal programme of EDI, and Erhan Tanercan director of LCT Leiderschap Consult & Training.
Tanercan finds it encouraging that so many leaders of the industry participated. It means that they are interested in the subject of energy transition. Question for them is how to make sure that others join in. The model of ‘transformational leadership’ is therefore perfectly applicable to this energy transition, according to Tanercan. Leaders should try to induce their workers to join them, not by promising them something but by inspiring them. They will have to internalize the goals of the leader or the company, or they may even identify themselves with them.
Apart from that, the leaders need to innovate and to reduce uncertainty. The crisis the world has gone through in the recent past (financial, economical, moral and political) adds to the confusion, Tanercan says. “Who is leading the transition? Who is making the choices?”, he asks. The start of a new government in Holland had increased uncertainty in this country. There will be more focus on nuclear energy. Apart from that there will be a ‘green deal’ with society, to stimulate local, small scale production, and the way renewables are being subsidized will change. “A lot of change, how to adapt to it?”
Big question is to what extent renewable energy will replace conventional ones like gas. Scheer, who is seen as the architect of the German law on renewable energy (the EEG), thinks all energy will come from renewable sources. Jepma thought Scheer is putting too much emphasis on renewables. There are other ways of reducing CO2-emissions, like carbon capture and storage, reducing energy use and erecting nuclear power plants. Besides that, it is really the question how successful the German miracle will turn out to be. “Will the EEG be looked back upon, in fifty years, as a great success or will it turn out to be a failure, just like the European guaranteed prices for milk and butter turned out to be a failure?”
Gas is here to stay for some time. The market has however not grasped the full potential of gas, so said Jepma. According to him the industry has paid too little attention to the image of gas. “We thought that everybody saw the potential of gas”. One reason for underestimating the potential of gas is that most of us assumed gas would only be there only for a limited number of years; after all the belt in Groningen would be exhausted at one point in time. But this is not to be the case; “There is plenty of gas”.
Differences between Scheer and the other are not as big as they might seem. “Nobody denies that climate is changing”, so Tanercan said. And no one denies that we ought to go the transitional path. All participants furthermore recognize that leadership is needed, also or especially in politics. The European trading scheme is not doing what it ought to do (imposing a penalty on emitting CO2) and the results of the Copenhagen conference were disappointing. The big question for all of them is: what do we do next?