Energy's Digital Future
Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security
Columbia University Press
Energy's Digital Future
Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security
Columbia University Press
Disruptive digital technologies are poised to reshape world energy markets. A new wave of industrial innovation, driven by the convergence of automation, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, is remaking energy and transportation systems in ways that could someday end the age of oil. What are the consequences—not only for the environment and for daily life but also for geopolitics and the international order?
Amy Myers Jaffe provides an expert look at the promises and challenges of the future of energy, highlighting what the United States needs to do to maintain its global influence in a post-oil era. She surveys new advances coming to market in on-demand travel services, automation, logistics, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and 3-D printing and explores how this rapid pace of innovation is altering international security dynamics in fundamental ways. As the United States vacillates politically about its energy trajectory, China is proactively striving to become the global frontrunner in a full-scale global energy transformation. In order to maintain its leadership role, Jaffe argues, the United States must embrace the digital revolution and foster American achievement. Bringing together analyses of technological innovation, energy policy, and geopolitics, Energy’s Digital Future gives indispensable insight into the path the United States will need to pursue to ensure its lasting economic competitiveness and national security in a new energy age.
Amy Myers Jaffe provides an expert look at the promises and challenges of the future of energy, highlighting what the United States needs to do to maintain its global influence in a post-oil era. She surveys new advances coming to market in on-demand travel services, automation, logistics, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and 3-D printing and explores how this rapid pace of innovation is altering international security dynamics in fundamental ways. As the United States vacillates politically about its energy trajectory, China is proactively striving to become the global frontrunner in a full-scale global energy transformation. In order to maintain its leadership role, Jaffe argues, the United States must embrace the digital revolution and foster American achievement. Bringing together analyses of technological innovation, energy policy, and geopolitics, Energy’s Digital Future gives indispensable insight into the path the United States will need to pursue to ensure its lasting economic competitiveness and national security in a new energy age.
A knowledgeable, hard-nosed look at a post-oil future. Kirkus Reviews
Amy Myers Jaffe has long been a sage and articulate voice on global energy matters. Energy’s Digital Future takes a hard and candid look at the future of America’s energy patch and how it can be shaped to help maintain America’s influence on the world stage. James A. Baker III, sixty-first U.S. secretary of state
Energy's Digital Future provides valuable insights into the role technology will play in a successful energy transition. This book has timely and compelling insights informing the transformations we can and need to make. Alexander Karsner, senior strategist and space cowboy, Google X
A fascinating and deeply important work on how the digital revolution is remaking the global energy system and geopolitics. A must-read for policy makers, business leaders, and students of international relations. Helima Croft, managing director and global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets and CNBC contributor
Energy’s Digital Future is a wake-up call and an urgent warning not only to the U.S. government but also to investors worldwide. Jaffe, whom I have often turned to for advice on energy investing, presents a well-balanced, research-backed analysis that points to the need to embrace the digital revolution in energy technologies. The transition to clean energy is already well underway and scholarship such as that presented here should be essential reading for all who care about the existential threat posed by continued reliance on powering our world through fossil fuels. Jagdeep Singh Bachher, chief investment officer of the University of California
This important book explores how mastering digital technology will shape energy systems that are clean, resilient, and spur growth. Jaffe explains how digitalization is transforming geopolitics as, in one generation, power shifts from those with fossil fuel reserves to those with innovation capacity and access to digital technologies. Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School and former special envoy for climate change at the United Nations
An interesting strategic look at how alternative energy sources fuel national security options, recommended for new readers, or those wanting to catch up on recent developments. . . . Anyone interested in the energy field, from either a corporate or a policy perspective, could likely benefit from reading this work. Journal of Strategic Security
Preface and Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Lessons from History: Nothing Is Inevitable
2. Revolutionizing the Link: Energy and Advanced Economic Development
3. China’s Energy Strategy
4. Meet the Jetsons: Revolutionary Transport Via Automation and Data
5. Alexa: Beam Me Up Clean Energy
6. The Energy Future and the Possibility of Peak Oil Demand
7. Energy Investor Dystopia
8. The Losers: The Changing Geopolitics of Oil
9. Geopolitics of a Greening Economy
Conclusion: Recommendations for the United States
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Lessons from History: Nothing Is Inevitable
2. Revolutionizing the Link: Energy and Advanced Economic Development
3. China’s Energy Strategy
4. Meet the Jetsons: Revolutionary Transport Via Automation and Data
5. Alexa: Beam Me Up Clean Energy
6. The Energy Future and the Possibility of Peak Oil Demand
7. Energy Investor Dystopia
8. The Losers: The Changing Geopolitics of Oil
9. Geopolitics of a Greening Economy
Conclusion: Recommendations for the United States
Notes
Bibliography
Index