Opportunities for the Next Generation

Growth - a threat or opportunity for the next generation of professionals in the energy sector?

There is understandable concern about the increased, and widespread, emphasis on the pursuit of economic growth and central to these concerns is the impact that such a pursuit is having on the global stock of natural resources and the inequitable distribution of costs and benefits. More specifically this concern has focused on the energy used in the pursuit of growth and the depletion of non-renewables in this endeavour.

This narrative raises several questions that need to be considered and highlights potential opportunities for a new generation of young professionals working within the energy sector. If growth is reconstrued as enhanced social and human capital, with a corresponding ecological ‘bottom line’, it is possible to think of economic growth as a redistributive process rather than one that accumulates for the few. The link between economic redistribution and social and human capital also highlights the potential paradox of the ‘Rebound Effect’ whereby more efficient, and potentially more affordable, green energy technologies can result in additional use by those who have had limited access to energy services (i.e., those experiencing fuel poverty).

It is however the delivery of services, rather than products, that may hold the key to the future of the energy sector and the new generation of employees within it. Mobility, thermal comfort, nutrition are all indicative of enhanced human capital and into the future are grounded in collective (community) provision, reduced per capita usage – following an initial increase due to rebound - and the availability of green energy technologies and delivery systems. The delivery of such service systems, built on the provision of green energy, will hopefully offer a new and exciting paradigm, opportunity, for those entering the energy sector in the near future.