By Mike Adams
We believe that there is as great a potential for dramatic changes in technology, demographics, and lifestyles following the COVID-19 pandemic as there was coming out of World War II. The investment opportunities could be very significant for those posed to take advantage of them. Approximately 125,000 to 800,000 years ago, early humans rubbed sticks together and discovered fire. That fire provided heat, light and cooking. For one of every three humans today, not much has changed. One and a half billion people live without electricity. Half a billion rely on primitive fuels like wood and charcoal. They live with water scarcity and impurity, with major health problems, and lack education.[1]They subsist. That will very likely change in the next decade or two. I had a client once who was the plant manager for American Standard in Tianjin, China. The plant employed over 1,000 workers manufacturing ceramic toilets, bathtubs and shower stalls. Prior to the plant’s opening, none of the Chinese employees had ever seen a ceramic toilet, bathtub, or shower stall, let alone used them. Today those employees have smart phones, buy their food at the grocery store and their clothes at the department store, and drive cars. They moved from subsistence to consumerism. There are a billion and a half people on the planet, many of whom will be moving from subsistence to consumerism in the coming decades. American companies will benefit. 43% of the revenues of all US companies come from overseas, and that number increases to 50% for companies in the S&P 500. The key to that change is energy. The energy industry today dwarfs all others. It is a industry worth more than $ 7 trillion. Change is coming. Solar energy in 2021 is as cheap or cheaper than energy generated from fossil fuels. Today, it accounts for just two percent of world electricity production, but it is growing at 30% per year. At that rate, it doubles every three years. If that continues solar energy may furnish 100% of all electrical energy within 15 to 18 years! The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperative estimates that one square mile of north African desert can produce enough solar energy to replace one million barrels of oil or 600,000 tons of coal. The German Aerospace Center estimates that if the Sahara Desert were covered in solar panels, it could furnish 40 times the current electrical needs of the world.[2] It is obvious that battery storage will need to be improved in order to make solar energy a 24-hour source. To deliver the energy a new smart gird must be developed. Current grid technology is similar to the telecom grid prior to the internet. The smart grid will probably have storage everywhere. There will not only be storage at the point of production, but also community storage. Buildings and homes will have energy storage capabilities and even appliances may be capable of storing energy for use later. I remember when I got my first computers. I had 100 megabytes of hard drive and my software was Word, Excel, and a data base. I thought I was set for the rest of my life. Not so. The hard drive was soon overwhelmed, and the number of software programs exploded. We at AFC believe the energy industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation and there will be multiple investment opportunities for decades to come. This is the second in a series of newsletters addressing the question: “Is COVID-19 the Pearl Harbor Moment of our Lifetime?” Solar electrical production addresses just 40% of energy usage. Stay tuned for the next newsletters that will look at the other 60%, and additional newsletters addressing other industries in which we anticipate will be breakthrough technology and changes in demographics and lifestyles.
Article Written by: Mike Adams, President & Principal
Adams Financial Concepts LTD
1001 Fourth Ave, Suite 4330, Seattle WA 98011
[1] Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, Diamandis, Peter and Kotler, Steven, 2014. [2] The Future is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives, Diamandis, Peter and Kotler, Steven, 20.