The term "activity" joined the list as it's being used in conversations around winter weather, which will likely continue as extreme weather patterns develop. “Digital” and “artificial intelligence” joined the most used terms list together with coverage around digital payments being connected to energy, digital transformation in the energy space, and contributed thought leadership articles around AI. Global conversations around oil production and the energy transition jumped up this month.

We’re seeing a trend across all energy conversations, including both national and trade media, that highlights "cleantech," which also correlates to the uptick in artificial intelligence coverage last month. For the second month in a row, we’re seeing continued coverage on energy sources like solar, gas and for the first time, oil, as well as new project highlights from our energy trades.

The volume of conversations surrounding energy decreased in December. This was expected, considering the large increase experienced from the U.S. election in November. We saw “renewable energy” leave the conversation, despite it being our most-used term last month. The terms “Trump” and “US” also fell off the top 10 most-used terms in December. We saw a 30% increase in the term “world,” indicating global energy conversations picked up as countries re-evaluate their energy strategies.

Energy-related hashtags dropped MoM, but most notably the conversation surrounding #renewables dropped 40% as chatter from the U.S. election has settled. There was a large spike in the use of #auspol MoM, as conversations related to nuclear energy and its cost have picked up with significant criticism towards Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy proposal. #Bitcoin made the top-used hashtags, as conversations increased related to Bitcoin’s sustainability progress and positive impact on energy grids.