Trend-spotting AES data - the hottest energy topics in 2021

Top-5 hottest topics in Q1 2021

1. hydrogen (all) 
2. carbon capture (including EOR)
3. methane management
4. electric vehicles / smart-grid (tie)
5. Biden Administration - hope

Top-5 hottest topics in Q4 2021

1. Sustainability 
2. Mining sector (coal, REMs, etc.) 
3. Hydrogen (in order, green, grey, blue)
4. Biden Administration - limits
5. COP26 - limited achievements

Retrospective:
Top-5 hottest topics five years ago (2016)

1. Tesla home battery systems
2. smart-grid
3. autonomous vehicles
4. US LNG exports
5. building efficiencies

What does the data mean? Is the energy sector chasing fads? Or, is the sector finding alternatives within the fossil fuel sector (as opposed to "alternatives to fossil fuel"). Contact us for more information about our data-driven insights.

​JANUARY

• ​Market cap of global mining sector surges. 
• 7 largest oil companies hit bottom of bear market and start to turn.
• Climate-tech SPACs outperform all other SPACs.

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​FEBRUARY

• Biden appointees take office; White House mammoth executive order on climate policy goes into effect.
• Texas' ERCOT power grid shortfall begins.

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MARCH

• Ever Given gets stuck in the Suez Canal.
• Global surge of offshore wind proposals: US Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine), China.

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APRIL

• REM prices surge, especially for battery materials (eg. rhodium from $640 an ounce five years ago to $21,900 an ounce this year; lithium prices rise 11% to $10,000 per ton).
• US Department of Energy activities include $40 billion available through its Loan Program Office and SETO announces new SunShot targets.

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MAY

• Ransomware cyber attack shuts down Colonial Pipeline.
• US Supreme Court sides with energy companies 7-1 in BP v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. 
• Atmospheric CO2 measured at NOAA's Mauna Loa exceeds 420 parts per million (ppm) for first time in history.

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JUNE

• Supply chain crisis contributes to natural gas shortage in Europe.
• US closes its helium reserve; meanwhile, Russia launches the first of six helium processing and storage plants.

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JULY

• OPEC+ deadlock continues, pushes oil prices higher.
• China punishes its independent oil refinery "Teapots" (private refiners who ignore government regulations, quotas, taxes, and emission limits). 

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AUGUST

• The IPCC releases its 6th Scientific Assessment: "warming of 1.5°C or more is very probable." 
• Wildfires burn in Russia, Greece, Algeria, British Columbia (Canada), Turkey, Italy, California, Oregon, Washington; temperatures in parts of Siberia top 118°F (or 48°C).

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SEPTEMBER

• Global supply chain in crisis mode (affecting every energy sector, too); freight rates spike (pre-pandemic shipping rate $1,500/container, now $30,000). 
• Climate-tech investing sets all-time records, led by mobility-as-a-service. 

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OCTOBER

• Biden's budget and infrastructure bills stall in Congress.
• Battery storage co-located with solar photovoltaic at all-time high in US; solar fastest growing energy source in China.
• Coal-fired electricity generation in US increases for first time since 2014.

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NOVEMBER

• Energy prices for almost all types of energy hit all-time highs world-wide; in Europe, natural gas prices up 300%. 
• At COP26, priorities of developed world (Germany, US, UK, France, etc) clash with developing world (India, Nigeria, Vietnam, etc.).

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DECEMBER

• A dizzy oil and gas market goes up and down ... and down and up & down and up and up again.
• The New York Times published a series of Pulitzer-worthy articles about cobalt and other rare earths. (Contributors: Dionne Searcey, Michael Forsythe, Eric Lipton and photographs by Ashley Gilbertson)​

• Nov. 20, 2021 - A Power Struggle Over Cobalt Rattles the Clean Energy Revolution
• Nov. 20, 2021 (updated) - What to Know About the Frantic Quest for Cobalt 
• Nov. 21, 2021 - How the US Lost Ground to China in the Contest for Clean Energy 
• Nov. 21, 2021 - Mining Congo: A Global Power Play (interactive) 
• Nov. 24, 2021 - How the Clean Energy Revolution Is Driving a Scramble for Congo's Mines 
• Nov. 29, 2021 - Hunt for the 'Blood Diamond of Batteries' Impedes Green Energy Push
• Dec. 7, 2021 -  How Hunter Biden's Firm Helped Secure Cobalt for the Chinese 
• Dec. 7, 2021 -  Congo Ousts Mining Leader in a Cloud of Corruption Claims 
• Dec. 7, 2021 -  On the Banks of the Furious Congo River, a 5-Star Emporium

OUR WORD FOR 2021 IS... 'FRAGILITY'
What is the best single word to describe 2021?
 
Our word for 2021 is ... fragility.
Not just as it relates to energy security, but also the environment, geopolitics, the supply-chain, democracy, facts, trust in the scientific method, justice....