Technology Transforming Energy in the Decade Ahead

There is an enormous amount of innovation and investment in the clean energy sector. The areas attracting the most excitement involve cutting system costs, deepening understanding of combining energy sources, renewable energy’s role in overall sustainability and, of course, hydrogen. Many of the innovations in place and in development will impact on each other – but they need the right support and commitment from the public and private sectors.

By looking closely at the energy sector today, we observe various signs that suggest rapid transformation for future developments in the industry. Governments around the world pass legislation in order to incorporate sustainable energy sources and technologies to enable the efficient use of energy systems. Broadly, energy industry trends can be categorized into three recurring concepts:

• Decarbonization indicates a transition towards a clean and carbon-free economy by integrating and increasing the share of renewable energy sources. A significant rise in the share of electric mobility and higher taxes on the use of fossil fuels are ways to decarbonize.

• Decentralization refers to geographically distributed electricity with a large number of multi-level producers and consumers. Some regions today generate electricity independently, even though they are not yet connected to the distribution networks. Besides, decentralization enables lower energy intensity and provides opportunities for utilizing renewable sources of energy.

• Digitization implies the widespread use of digital machines and devices at all levels of the power system, from production and infrastructure to end-user devices. Energy 4.0, as it is known, enables the industry to implement intelligent energy and power management solutions based on machine-to-machine and machine-human interactions.