Evolving energy, evolving Ember

If you visited our website last week and are having another look today, you may notice that we’ve made a few changes in how we describe ourselves and the work we do. 

The changes are subtle but meaningful. Our focus on ‘clean electricity’ has expanded to a ‘clean, electrified energy future.’

The word ‘electrified’ comes into our mission statement because the expanding use of electricity in transport, heating and industry is becoming as important as the growth of wind and solar generation. 

It’s the combination of those two trends that brings the biggest societal benefits – reducing energy costs, enabling self-sufficiency for individuals, communities, businesses and countries, reducing energy wastage and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. 

Behind the changes to our mission statement lie not only an acknowledgement of how the energy system is progressing, but also how our role needs to evolve and expand so we continue to track and analyse all the important facets of the transformation.

This in turn is being facilitated by the rapid expansion of Ember itself, which is growing even faster than global electric vehicle sales. More people (and we’re up to around 50 now, just three years on from our launch) means capacity to generate a greater breadth of data and analysis, with a growing focus on Asia in particular and the expansion of our coal mine methane work into satellite data. 

Other organisations are already tracking the growth in, for example, electric car sales. Our focus will be more holistic, identifying what this means for the electricity system. 

To do this properly we will also be taking a growing interest in the role of power grids, which are emerging as a major constraint on the swift expansion of cheap renewable generation, and in mechanisms such as battery storage and demand response which allow a renewables-based system to deliver 24/7 power even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. 

None of this is entirely new to Ember. 

Already this year we’ve published reports on the huge benefits that India can gain by expanding its national grid and scaling up flexibility, and on how grid strengthening in Europe will help deliver climate change targets. 

We’ve shown how cheap renewables have buffered energy costs in Europe against the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and we’ve shown how combining further rollout with grid development could bring further price savings. 

Our flagship Global Electricity Review is already noting the likely impact on electricity demand from electrification, while in Asia we’ve begun to illustrate how data transparency can facilitate smart energy system analysis, helping in the development of beneficial policies.

So our amended mission and priorities are an evolution – rather like what’s happening with the energy system itself.