The Physics of Decarbonization: How the Laws of Thermodynamics Influence Energy Transition Pathways and Portfolio Choices
The energy transition is, at its core, a physical transformation: the replacement of combustion-based energy conversion with processes that exploit electromagnetic phenomena — photovoltaic conversion, electromagnetic induction in wind turbines, electrochemical storage in batteries. Each of these processes is governed by thermodynamic principles that set hard limits on achievable efficiency, scalable output, and material requirements. These limits do not yield to policy ambition or capital volume. This is not to suggest that the energy transition is thermodynamically impossible — it is not. But investment that ignore conversion efficiency ceilings, the energy density constraints of storage technologies, or the material bottlenecks embedded in low-carbon systems carry analytical errors that compound over time. The most common error is treating cost curves as the binding constraint when physical performance limits are in fact more fundamental.
