Karl Rose talks about climate change & energy | MCI Livetalk

MCI-Livetalk with Karl Rose, Chief Strategist, ADNOC Group, Abu Dhabi, Member of the Supervisory Board of OMV AG & Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ESTAG & Former Director in the World Energy Council.

After graduating from the Montan University of Leoben, Austrian Karl Rose embarked on an international career in the energy sector and is today one of the most sought-after experts in the fields of electricity and energy.

With his extraordinary expertise, he takes on the question of how climate change and energy supply will develop in the coming years in the MCI Livetalk with Rector Andreas Altmann.

"No one asks the experts in industry," says Karl Rose about the politicians' approach to the switch to renewable energy. They have been dealing with the questions of how energy will be procured and transported since the 90s of the last century.

Nowadays, the energy issue can no longer be discussed in isolation from climate change, as it is a very emotional topic in socio-political terms. Within the EU, too, increasingly aggressive targets are being set. Karl Rose would prefer to advise every politician in a personal meeting and inform them in detail about this topic. After all, experts are not exactly well represented in the political ranks. As an example, Rose cites the handling of the switch to solar energy in Germany. When the sun comes up, a huge amount of gigabytes is suddenly pumped into the power grid. Conventional power cables like the ones we're using right now can't handle this abrupt influx. That is why the energy transition must also take logistics into account.

Especially with a growing population, which of course also consumes more energy, the energy transition towards renewable energy must be viewed critically. After all, the politicizing questions about renewable energy need a clearly thought-out system in order to actually achieve the ultimate goal of reducing CO2 emissions.

The power blackout that Europe narrowly escaped in early 2021 illustrates all too well the error-prone nature of the approach to renewable energy. Fluctuations within the power supply due to wind and solar power supply lead to reduced power supplies. Rose also speaks of the challenge that power lines within the EU, which we will face in the future. Austria is still in a favored situation in this respect, because if an outage should actually occur, there are cross-border lines to neighboring countries that could be used in emergency. However, Rose is in favor of a European control center, which should deal with this issue in detail in order to avoid Europe-wide power failures. The current problem of how to store electricity is also at the forefront.

We will also see changes in the transport of energy, predicts Rose. Hydrogen as an energy carrier is often cited as the answer here, but Rose points out the highly explosive properties of hydrogen, as well as the complexity of transporting it. "To transport 50kg of hydrogen, you need 950kg of solvent," Rose explains. Therefore, hydrogen should only be used if it can be produced locally, he recommends.

Petroleum isn't going anywhere. According to Rose, the discussion about the scarcity of petroleum resources took on a momentum of its own. After all, oil can still be mined for the next 130 years, especially in Arab countries. Social will and global supply chains will determine the use of petroleum in the future, as well as the military. Solutions to power tanks with renewable energy are currently still in the works.

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Univ.-Prof. DI Karl Rose studied petroleum sciences at the Montan University Leoben.

After his nearly 25-year international career in senior positions at Royal Dutch Shell, Professor Rose joined Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in 2017 as Chief Strategist and Chief Economist.

From February 2010 to April 2017, he led the International Energy Policy and Global Energy Scenarios 2050 Development agendas as Senior Director Policy and Scenarios at the World Energy Council in London.

In addition to several supervisory board positions, he has been Professor of Strategic Management and Applied Business Administration at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Applied Business Administration since August 2010.