Predictions and trends of the sector by Harris Karaolides, Global Leader of Energy & Renewable Energy Practice Group & Ana Ber, Regional Leader of Central Easter Europe, InterSearch Worldwide.
Despite the turmoil 2021 was the best year in a long time for the Executive Search industry globally, Energy being one of the most exciting sectors of the business. We expect 2022 to be even better from an Executive Search perspective, even though turmoil will continue – or, perhaps, because of it!
The positive outlook is linked to trends that first became apparent in 2021 and are expected to continue in 2022, such as developments around policy & regulation, and the commitment of governments to support the move to low-carbon energy-based economies. Examples of the above include the new Fit for 55 law by the European Commission, the approval by the US Senate of President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the introduction of the Green Hydrogen Strategy by the UK government, and targets that were set by the US government to reduce the cost of long-duration energy storage systems and accelerate wind and solar energy deployment.
We’ll try to make a few predictions about the Energy market this year – you can check back in 12 months’ time to see how well we did with these! So, here we go:
- OIL PRICE: At the time of writing this everyone’s euphoric because it’s around USD 86 per barrel – don’t expect it to stay there, stabilizing in the low 70’s sometime later this year looks more realistic as oil production increases.
- NATURAL GAS: Prices will drop this year, but not too much.
- RENEWABLES: Europe accelerates deployment, becoming the second largest renewable power market after China. In Europe, annual capacity additions are forecast to increase to 49 GW in 2022. Germany will continue to deliver the largest renewable capacity additions in Europe, followed by France, the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and Turkey but also the CEE region with Romania on top as a big contributor to this increase in both solar and wind new developments. Particularly in Solar installations will increase significantly in 2022 all over the world, the pipeline right now looks very impressive. In Europe alone the solar fleet is predicted to double within next 4 years, up to 327 GW.
- ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 2022 will be their year. We expect approximately 9mil of these to be sold globally this year (vs. around 6mil in 2021).
- DECARBONIZATION: A buzzword to remember for 2021, the pace will pick up significantly when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.
About the authors:
Harris Karaolides is the Global Leader of Energy and Renewable Energy Practice Group at InterSearch Worldwide.
He has 20+ years of experience as an executive search consultant, joining InterSearch Greece in 1998 and eventually becoming the General Manager of InterSearch’s Athens office, a position he holds until today. He currently splits his time between Greece and the Middle East, wearing a second hat as General Manager of InterSearch’s Dubai office.
He is focusing on executive search across various industries, has specific market knowledge of the Energy and Renewable Energy sector through working with numerous large service providers and product suppliers.
Ana Ber is the Central Eastern Europe Regional Leader of Energy and Renewable Energy Practice group at InterSearch Worldwide.
She is the Managing Partner of P&P InterSearch Romania since 2005. Her main areas of expertise are Business Development and Search & Selection, Local & International Executive Search and HR-consultancy.
Ana covers several industries, such as Manufacturing / Engineering / Technology; Energy / Oil / Gas & Renewables / Power; Banking and Financial Services; Fast Moving and Durable Consumer goods; Pharmaceutical industry; Real estate / Facility & Property Management / Construction, Infrastructure, Environment.
