Between the Poles: IEA projects investment of $48 to $53 trillion in energy through 2035

Geoff Zeiss

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Proven guidelines for reducing underground infrastructure damage at airports, university, industrial, and commercial campuses, and towns
There are proven measures that an administration, owner, or municipal government responsible for an airport, university, industrial or commercial campus, or town can undertake to reduce the risk of underground utility damage, the associated disruptions to operations and business and the danger for workers and the public.
Sharing information about the location of underground utilities
The U.S. devotes an estimated $10 billion annually to locating underground infrastructure. Every construction project requiring excavation involves significant efforts in locating underground utilities prior to and during construction to reduce the risk of injuries and unexpected project delays. But this information is rarely shared and the location of underground infrastructure is recaptured over and over again. There are successful examples around the world where municipal and regional governments have helped enable a shared underground utility network database.
Growing evidence of the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach to construction
Building information modeling (BIM) has been applied to design-build construction projects for many years. A growing number of countries are mandating BIM for public projects. While the UK government has said that "...we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle", until recently there has not been hard data to support this conjecture. Similarly there has been only anecdotal support for an integrated BIM and geospatial approach for design, build, operate and maintain projects. Now we are beginning to see data from real world projects that offer evidence for the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach for construction projects.
Progress in geospatial, civil, and BIM interoperability promises efficient workflows for infrastructure
The BIM and geospatial interoperability challenge is the latest symptom of the broader problem of integrating AEC and geospatial workflows, that has contributed to low productivity in the construction sector. After the announcement about a year ago by Jack Dangermond and Andrew Anagnost of a new relationship to build a bridge between Autodesk and ESRI technologies, I thought it a good time to review progress toward interoperability between the AEC and geospatial worlds.
Geography2050: Accurate location information about underground infrastructure is essential for powering our future planet
I thought it would be worth while to include here a talk I gave at GEOGRAPHY 2050 Powering Our Future Planet at Columbia University in New York about the importance of accurate location information about underground infrastructure for the future development of the energy grid. With some notable exceptions accurately recording the location of subsurface infrastructure including oil, gas, electric power and other energy infrastructure is ignored - perhaps this is a case of out-of-sight is indeed out-of-mind. The reality is that knowing the location of underground energy infrastructure is critical for national security, for disaster planning and management, for public safety and for economic efficiency. Everyone is aware of at least one disaster resulting from or exacerbated by not knowing where our energy infrastructure is - the explosions in San Bruno in California (2010) and Belgium (2004) immediately come to mind.
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BIM + geospatial interoperability would avoid another CAD + GIS quagmire
A specific challenge currently facing the AEC and geospatial industries is integrating building information models (BIM) and geospatial infrastructure and building models. There are parallels between what happened in the 1990s in unsuccessfully addressing CAD+GIS interoperability and the current challenge of BIM+geospatial interoperability. But there are also important differences which provide grounds for optimism that the availability of both BIM and geospatial standards, a vibrant open source geospatial community, and a new willingness on the part of major software players in the BIM and geospatial industries will make it possible to successfully address the latest interoperability challenge facing the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) and geospatial industries.
BVLOS drones improve power line inspections amid increasing fire and storm risks for utilities | Utility Dive
Transmission line inspections for vegetation management and other purposes are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience. We saw the devastating effect of vegetation encroachment in the recent California fires, which in part have been blamed on failure to maintain properly cleared transmission lines. With drones that can cover great distances in a single flight and provide detailed and accurate aerial imagery of transmission lines and other infrastructure, it is now possible to almost completely automate this expensive process. Automating transmission line inspections for vegetation management using BVLOS drones not only saves money, but also could improve the resiliency and reliability of the transmission grid.

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June 05, 2014

IEA projects investment of $48 to $53 trillion in energy through 2035

Currently investment in energy is about $1.6 trillion per year. Most of today’s investment spending, well over $1 trillion per year, is spent on extracting, transporting, and refining fossil fuels or building coal and gas-fired power plants. Renewables, together with biofuels and nuclear power, account for around 15% of annual investment flows. Investment in power transmission and distribution networks account for another 15%. Annual spending on energy efficiency is about $130 billion today.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that more than $48 trillion in cumulative investment will be required from now through 2035 just to meet the world's increasing energy demand. More than half of the energy-supply investment is needed just to keep production at today’s levels, to make up for declining oil and gas fields and to replace aging power plants and other equipment.

Around $40 trillion is required in energy supply
$23 trillion is in fossil fuel extraction, transport and oil refining
$10 trillion is in power generation
- renewables ($6 trillion)
- nuclear ($1 trillion)
$7 trillion in transmission and distribution.

and $8 trillion is required in energy efficiency.

$7.2 trillion in the transport and buildings sectors.

The current annual investment of $1.6 trillion per year needs to increase to about $2 trillion. Annual spending on energy efficiency needs to rise from $130 billion today to more than $550 billion by 2035. These goals will require attracting private investors and capital. But this investment will not come close to reaching the climate stabilization target of 2 °C.

Achieving 450 ppm CO2 or 2 °C

The IEA estimates that $53 trillion in cumulative investment in energy supply and efficiency is required by 2035 to get the world onto a 2 °C emissions path. This will require a much greater investment estimated at $14 trillion in efficiency to lower 2035 energy consumption by almost 15%. Energy supply investment remains at $40 trillion, but investment shifts from away from fossil fuels to the power sector. The investment in low-carbon energy supply will need to increase to almost $900 billion and spending on energy efficiency will have to exceed $1 trillion per year by 2035.