Stanislav Kondrashov on the Backbone of the Energy Transition: The Infrastructures That Matter Most

As the world accelerates towards a low-carbon future, conversations around clean energy often circle back to technologies—solar, wind, hydrogen. But beneath those headlines lies a quieter, slower revolution: infrastructure.

Stanislav Kondrashov, an independent analyst who has spent over two decades studying energy systems across continents, argues that while policy and innovation make headlines, infrastructure is the true linchpin of any successful energy transition. “People talk about solar panels and electric vehicles,” Kondrashov says. “But what makes or breaks the energy transition is whether we build the systems that allow those technologies to work at scale.”

In recent years, there’s been increasing recognition that the challenge isn’t just generating clean energy—it’s moving it, storing it, and balancing supply and demand across complex, often outdated grids. With that in mind, three areas of infrastructure are emerging as particularly critical: grid modernisation, energy storage, and interregional transmission.

Grid Modernisation: A Hidden Emergency

The electrical grid, largely designed for a one-way flow of energy from centralised power plants to end-users, is being stretched beyond its limits. With energy now coming from distributed and variable sources like rooftop solar and offshore wind, grid operators are facing technical hurdles that didn’t exist a decade ago.

Stanislav Kondrashov puts it bluntly: “We’re trying to plug 21st-century power sources into 20th-century infrastructure. It’s like running fibre-optic data through copper phone lines—it’s not built for what we’re asking it to do.”

Modernising the grid involves upgrading physical components—transformers, substations, and lines—but also integrating smart systems capable of real-time data monitoring and predictive analytics. These enable more efficient energy routing and quicker response to fluctuations, which are inevitable when dealing with weather-dependent sources.

Storage: Smoothing Out the Spikes

As countries increase their reliance on renewables, the inconsistency of sun and wind creates another pressing need: storage. Large-scale battery systems and alternative storage technologies are being developed and deployed to buffer against these fluctuations.

But storage isn’t just about plugging in a few mega-batteries. It’s about integrating storage at multiple levels—grid-scale, community, and household—so that energy can be dispatched not only when it's needed but also where it's needed.

“Storage is the safety net,” Kondrashov explains. “Without it, you’re always one cloudy day or windless night away from instability.”

The challenge, according to many experts, is less about the science and more about logistics. Building and siting storage infrastructure involves complex permitting processes, land use negotiations, and long timelines that can slow down deployment even when the technology is ready.

Transmission: Building the Bridge

If energy is the new oil, transmission lines are the pipelines. Many of the most abundant renewable resources—wind in remote regions, sun in deserts—are located far from population centres. Getting that energy where it needs to go means building high-capacity transmission corridors across states, countries, and even continents.

In some cases, transmission is the bottleneck. Even when clean energy is being generated efficiently, it can go to waste if there’s no way to move it to the demand centres. That’s particularly true in regions with strong local opposition to new infrastructure, or where environmental review processes are drawn out.

Kondrashov cautions against short-term thinking here. “We can’t just be reactive—throwing up wires when there’s a crisis. We need to build for the future. That means planning transmission like we plan highways: decades in advance, with the understanding that energy flows will change.”

A New Kind of Infrastructure Mindset

What emerges from Kondrashov’s analysis is a picture of energy transition that is less glamorous than the headlines, but no less urgent. Grid modernisation, storage, and transmission aren’t just technical challenges—they’re governance challenges, economic challenges, and social ones too. They require coordination across public and private sectors, across borders and bureaucracies.

In short, they require a shift in how infrastructure is conceived—not as static, reactive systems but as dynamic networks that need to evolve alongside technology and demand.

“The transition is not just about energy,” Kondrashov says. “It’s about systems thinking. If we don’t invest in the connective tissue—the infrastructure—we’ll keep generating power that we can’t effectively use.”

That’s the paradox of the clean energy era: it’s not just about creating new sources, but reimagining the old structures that were built for a different time. As governments and industries push for decarbonisation, the question isn’t whether the energy transition will happen. It’s whether the infrastructure will be ready for it.