Harnessing Win-Win Energy Geopolitics and Competitive Global Energy Market by Integrating Energy Efficiency

The energy-starved world is in dire need of a new formula for energy transformation. Energy efficiency is already in place, but it is in its infancy and being used for technology applications only. It is not being integrated into regional energy or electricity trading markets – which can usher immense benefit by improving regional cooperation and thus minimize tussle in energy geopolitics. Combining adaptive markets and resilient energy-efficient technologies can help alleviate some of the major geopolitical problems. Geopolitical tension in India-Pakistan relations, for example, can be mitigated by initiating a common energy market in the subcontinent. This trading market can be developed based on digital energy storage technologies (smart grids and IoT) for energy-efficient industry, transportation, and domestic applications. However, we generally attempt to address the conflicts of energy geopolitics by calculating the affordability or availability of energy resources (energy security), but we can bypass the notion of affordability by integrating energy efficiency in the equation. Through the “waste not, want not” philosophy, if we need less energy to complete the same activity, we will not have to worry about its price or even availability. Even the biggest component of energy transformation is energy efficiency which we tend to not incorporate during the discussion of energy geopolitics. The interconnection between the energy market and energy digitization is often more critical and can be addressed by energy efficiency, which has been laid out in this chapter.