Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Energy Law

This chapter introduces the global energy regime today, and the challenges arising now, in the present, but also in the future. It provides an outline of the current energy landscape. The chapter considers the origins of Hydrocarbon Man and the Age of Hydrocarbons. It demonstrates how the Age of Electricity Man is imminent. The rise of the Electricity Man does not signify the end of the Hydrocarbon Man’s age nor does it come without challenges and risks. Technically, the renewable generation of electricity brings about new and well-known challenges, such as variability of supply and therefore system instability and issues of security of supply. The introduction of new forms of electricity supply may also generate stranded costs and investment issues related to the phasing out of non-renewably fuelled power plants or rendering them redundant, thus requiring large infrastructure investments to be integrated into the system to supply other energy sources that now substitute.