Counting the cost of shifting to renewables

In recent years, renewable technologies have reached technical readiness, providing commercially viable solutions for the energy transition – some backed by over 15 years of research and development. But as legislation and technology for low-carbon energy industries converge, a new emerging market has been created – the renewable fuels market. This market lies at the crossroads of two welldeveloped and formerly independent global industries  – agriculture and energy.  The $5 trillion (€4.2 trillion) agricultural industry has the expertise to process large quantities of biological products. While the $3.3  trillion (€2.8 trillion) energy  industry has the know-how to  produce transportation fuels.1 The integration of these  industries means we now have  technologies that can convert  bio-based feedstocks such as  animal fats, used cooking oils,  vegetable oils, and greases  (FOGs) into fuels that can  power the world’s vehicles.  The shift to renewable fuels is taking off. As of 2019, the market is estimated at $160 billion (€135 billion). Today, the market is experiencing...