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CONTRIBUTORS

Fred Fromm

Portfolio Manager, Research Analyst, Franklin Equity Group
United States

This is a chapter from the Franklin Templeton Institute paper, Energy transition: Accelerating investment opportunities. To read all chapters in this paper, download the complete PDF or click here.

Chapter preview

With the energy transition underway, integrated energy companies aren’t sure how much natural gas, petroleum and coal the world will need to ensure reliable supplies vis-à-vis huge increases in renewable energy capacity and storage systems (batteries, fuel cells, etc.), particularly with many governments trying to phase out carbon-emitting fuels.

This chapter explores bridge fuels—with an emphasis on those that are plentiful and burn cleaner, such as natural gas—which will put less strain on communities and renewable supply chains as they ramp up, creating a smoother transition. As such, bridge fuels can make good intermediate-term investments, which our team from Franklin Equity Group discusses, along with:

  • Technology advancements making the development of unconventional natural gas resources economically viable, vastly expanding resource availability.
  • Natural gas production and distribution can displace coal- and petroleum-fired power generation soon. Such substitutions can provide immediate environmental benefits without putting undue strain on supply chains since much of the technology has been around for decades.
  • Existing infrastructure’s role in backup capacity to help solve for obstacles such as renewables’ intermittency and grid-complexity issues, along with scarcities of source materials economies will likely encounter during an expansive, multidecade transition.

 

This is a chapter from the Franklin Templeton Institute publication, Energy transition: Accelerating investment opportunities. Arguably, humanity’s greatest current challenge is the need to shift to low and net-zero carbon in a little less than 30 years. New technologies are accelerating the renewable energy transition while reducing environmental impacts. The renewable energy sources of today and the future require new and smarter technologies as well as the rapid creation of new infrastructure. These challenges create investment opportunities as investors have a critical role given the capital required to fund this transition. To read the full paper and explore views from across our specialist investment managers, download the complete PDF or click here.

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