With 2022 in the rear-view mirror, we can ascertain that it was a year of big energy headlines reflecting on a terrible war, dry rivers and nuclear outages that collectively sparked the highest power, gas and coal prices on record.  

Have energy consumers seen the worst, or are peak prices still ahead of us? How will energy companies spend the cash they aggregated in 2022? Will 2023 be a pay-back year for the supply chain? Will hydrogen and CCUS finally take off? These are questions we will address in our first “Rystad Talks Energy” of the year.  

In Rystad Energy, we see that in the oil and gas sector will go from seven years of famine to seven years of feast, reminiscent of the biblical tale from ancient Egypt. Average investments relevant for oil service companies – including refineries, LNG, geothermal and offshore wind – are poised to grow from $740 billion over the past seven years to $920 billion during the next seven years, with 2023 growing 14% versus 2022.  

In the solar and wind sectors, we expect prices to decline after three consecutive years of increases, as more capacity comes online and as bottlenecks are removed from, among other areas, the polysilicon supply chain. Within solar PV, we expect more than 20% activity growth but only a 6% increase in capital expenditure. For onshore wind, we forecast a 12% rise in investments, while for offshore wind we see at least 20% investment growth.

The sectors that really will see a quantum leap in 2023 are CCUS and hydrogen. We expect these industries to grow by around 150% based on named projects. Thus, we will kick off the year by talking to the leader of what I refer to as “the original green hydrogen company” – Nel – which can trace its history back to 1927! This technology finally seems to be ready for take-off.

Please join us on Thursday to understand the reasons behind this development, through my conversation with the Nel chief executive Håkon Volldal.