Any energy transition is a massive shift in the energy supply.

As our energy consumption continues rising, we face several global challenges. The primary sources of our energy production will need to change as carbon emissions and warming greenhouse gases continue to amass in the planet’s atmosphere, creating a more unstable world we live in today. Traditionally, we have been heavily dependent on mainly three types of fossil fuels in use for energy generation: coal, oil and natural gas are all non-renewable sources, depleting the planet’s resources.

The continued burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation is giving levels of carbon intensity that need to be dramatically reversed as this continues to put pressure on rising temperatures and a warming planet. We have this real need for an effective energy transition built on electricity supplied by renewables. Renewable energy sources offer cleaner alternatives based on solar, wind power, hydroelectric energy, biomass from plants, hydrogen and fuel cells and geothermal power.

We need to build different energy solutions to resolve the current grid difficulties of accommodating variable power sources like wind and solar energy, the fastest-growing renewable power sources. As these resources begin to supply increasing percentages of power to the grid, integrating them into grid operations will become increasingly difficult.

Our present energy grids are partly to blame for their out-of-date design and the reliance on fossil fuels to power them. Most of today’s grids were built early in the last century and work on a central distribution model with minimal flexibility to adapt to alternative energy sources or sudden outages.  We rely on large-scale energy grids designed over many decades of upgrades and simply fixing and patching, and these are not up for the job to deal with the challenges of increased power demand. They are very carbon-intensive.

The energy transition is about reducing carbon emissions. Globally it is recognized electrification from renewable sources becomes central to reducing carbon. Carbon emission reductions are necessary for new transportation solutions and our energy supply needs for industry and cities.

We do have real alternatives through renewables.

Renewables are overcoming many challenges to make them economically viable, taking those surrounding our grid infrastructure.

Firstly, there is a physical reality that the wind, solar, and geothermal resources often are located in remote places or reliant on the sun or weather conditions. This has significant logistical issues in delivering power and minimising the loss of power in transmissions.

Secondly, energy distribution radically needs to change to efficiently distribute the power from renewable to where much of the power demand is, in urban city areas, and this has significant infrastructure issues to resolve to switch from central power generation to distribute and bidirectional sources.

Thirdly, a new strategy for providing storage capacity will be central to this ability to switch to renewables, and this conversion to electricity, we lose central inverters and inertia to keep the power “on” and need to build local storage to accommodate power surges and variable electricity flows.

Fourthly, we must build electric superhighways that provide power infrastructure radically different from the past to meet future demand. As electricity demand rapidly rises, our existing grid infrastructure cannot cope without massive overhauls and different transmission solutions.

Our new energy sources of supply are being designed to be bi-directional, so power utilities, intermediaries, or final consumers can all play their part in managing their role in generating and managing electricity. This two-way energy flow allows for returning to the grid excess capacity, offering very different business models than the past for new pricing models that are increasingly flexible, challenging the past, often monopolistic positions of one energy provider.

The challenge is building a global consensus of understanding for an effective energy transition.

Energy sourcing as they become more decentralized and more open to the competition, where more energy options will rapidly change the market for different competitive models.  Smart Infrastructure, Storage, and Smart Grid solutions are changing the dynamics within the energy supply. Solutions today for energy storage and distribution solutions are being designed to help smooth out the variability in wind and solar resources and progressively phase out fossil fuels as technology solutions will make them easier to use and in cost solutions.

The economic and political will globally is the key to rapid change. The need to rapidly “ramp up” our renewable sources of energy, mainly from solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass from plants, hydrogen and fuel cells, and geothermal power, is possible so we will be able to make better use of various energy resources to achieve this energy transition that is needed.

We need far greater collaboration and investment in building a new energy infrastructure for the future built on renewables and all their variability. Predictability is not simply on market planning and evaluating potential demand; it needs to be more in real-time, reliant on a constant stream of data streaming into control points to send power to where it is needed on time and every time.

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Energy is transforming, and it is those that build new solutions through innovation that will become the frontrunners.

My job is to help and support them on their way.

Our belief is there is a real gap in the need to build a robust innovation capability, capacity and competency for achieving real change in the energy system.

My dedicated posting sites for the energy transition are:

www.innovating4energy.com – This posting site offers a mix of thought leadership, news and awareness

www.digital4energy.com – This site focuses on the growing influence of digitalization on the energy system

Should we allow energy to continue on its current system, reliant on fossil fuels, old, inadequate energy systems, and unreliable infrastructure solutions?

Or do we finally recognize, power solutions need to change radically into sources of energy, based more on renewables, that provide cleaner, more naturally sustaining environments based on wind, the sun, and natural conversion of water or the increased use of biomass?

These Energy posting sites provide insights and knowledge to support and complement your understanding of the Energy Transition we are all undertaking

The energy ecosystem is not impacting many; it is affecting us all

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Why innovate energy?

The front end of energy means what exactly?

It is the place I feel I can make the best contribution, a place where innovation thrives and drives discovery to commercialization of a new idea that emerges as a concept of value, often replacing something that does not “serve today’s or tomorrow’s purpose, where the energy transition must embrace fully “

My aim here is : “To achieve better, faster and more valuable future solutions with a focus on sustainability, to anticipate constant change and build different more exciting and valuable business models for lasting impact”

The belief of why innovation is vital to the Energy Transition

Our belief is there is real value for you to view what you doing with a different lens. There is often a need to bridge the awareness gap. Knowledge is gained when it is shared and exchanged. I put a lot of my time into researching the energy transition.

Our role is to be a “translator” and to take the perspective of the innovator looking for fresh opportunities, supporting and accelerating your existing ideas and concepts. We need to relate, even “ground” thinking and determine the real value and potential

We believe there is a real gap in the need to build a robust innovation capability, capacity and competency to help accelerate the Energy Transition journey. I have over twenty years of advising and transforming innovation activities, not a bad resource to “tap into”.

Innovation begins with discovery, then it moves through the innovation pipeline, through its experimenting, validating, testing, often multiple trials, commissioning and eventual commercialization roll-outs.

Innovation is critical in this energy transition.

We need to move from research and development, through engineering validation but into pilot and scaling actual solutions at speed. We do not have the luxury of evaluating these over standard lifetime returns or observing others over the years, there is the need to raise validation and take higher risks, than in more stable times.

We need to be more pioneering. Without a coordinated effort, risk is always cautious without some form of guarantee or point of crisis. To date, we have not generated co-ordination in policies, collaborations, and commitments to shared risks. We have yet to fully place in the minds of everyone what the crisis is and where it is heading if we do not respond with a real sense of purpose.

So for us,  the energy transition is at the forefront of “cutting edge” innovation to deliver and why this gets our real attention in the ways we can support the energy transition to offer ways to understand, investigate, research and become even more fully immersed in it.

Our ongoing focus is to continually become even more conversant in the Energy Transition, to build out what we know and can provide as “accelerating input” into its complexity in resolving both its issues and barriers, but also in “formulating outputs” in scope, opportunities and magnitude of scale for contributing where possible to supporting each organizations journey.

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We provide a range of services that support your energy transition at the front of the change process.

I have three sources of energy reference that is building the Energy Story, as I am seeing it. I encourage you to take a look….please

www.innovating4energy.com – this is my posting site on all things energy

www.innovation4energy.website – my website that (begins) to structure my front end of energy offering

www.digital4energy.com – the digitalization of energy is a very exciting place at present as its value is recognized as vital to bring our energy up to date.

We believe there is a real gap in the need to build a robust innovation capability, capacity and competency to help accelerate the Energy Transition journey. I have over twenty years of advising and transforming innovation activities, not a bad resource to “tap into”.

Two points of innovation reference that are my core here

www.paul4innovation.com – my posting site, since 2010 this is a regular

www.agilityinnovation.com – going through a revamp but my core since 2000.

Innovation begins with discovery, then it moves through the innovation pipeline, through its experimenting, validating, testing, often multiple trials, commissioning and eventual commercialization roll-outs.

The opportunities for change are simply opening up everywhere. Our belief it is innovation will be at the forefront of the changes.

This level of investment commitment will radically alter the job landscape, where energy is generated, by what means, and how it is going to be distributed, stored and consumed by us all.

Presently we are not making the essential investments we need to make. The period 2020 to 2030 is absolutely critical for investments not just to be pledged but effectively deployed on the ground in the physical solutions and effective operation needed to make this energy transition required on track to reach the climate goals.

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We need to move from research and development, through engineering validation but into pilot and scaling actual solutions at speed. We do not have the luxury of evaluating these over standard lifetime returns or observing others over the years, there is the need to raise validation and take higher risks, than in more stable times.

We need to be more pioneering. Without a coordinated effort, risk is always cautious without some form of guarantee or point of crisis. To date, we have not generated co-ordination in policies, collaborations, and commitments to shared risks. We have yet to fully place in the minds of everyone what the crisis is and where it is heading if we do not respond with a real sense of purpose.

My innovating purpose in the Energy Transition

So for me,  the energy transition is at the forefront of “cutting edge” innovation to deliver and why I have given this my 100% attention in the ways I can support the energy transition to offer ways to understand, investigate, research and become even more fully immersed in it.

My focus is to really become even more conversant in the Energy Transition, to build out what I know and can provide as “accelerating input” into its complexity in resolving both its issues and barriers, but also in “formulating outputs” in scope, opportunities and magnitude of scale for contributing where possible to supporting each organizations journey.

My focus on understanding the innovation needs of the energy transition and its urgency

Why did I chose to exclusively focus on different aspects of innovation within the energy transition is simple for me. We have such a real threat of climate change and any pathway to meet the Paris Agreements, where all countries pledged to keep the rise of the global temperature below 2 degrees C by 2050 and ideally try to work towards the position of 1.5-degree C above pre-industrial levels. These target goals mean bringing our temperatures down dramatically.

We are presently at a very critical decision time; there is the level of investment needed to achieve this,  the current estimate to create a safe climate system is a need to invest USD 110 trillion of new investments in the energy sector by 2050.

Much of the investments need to be directed away from fossil fuels (the primary carbon emitters) into clean technologies. It is renewables, including most power generation and end-use applications that need to invest mostly through generation sources of wind, solar, hydrogen, and biofuels.

The opportunities for change are simply opening up everywhere.

This level of investment commitment will radically alter the job landscape, where energy is generated, by what means, and how it is going to be distributed, stored and consumed by us all.

Presently we are not making the essential investments we need to make. The period 2020 to 2030 is absolutely critical for investments not just to be pledged but effectively deployed on the ground in the physical solutions and effective operation needed to make this energy transition required on track to reach the climate goals.

The post Innovation is critical in this Energy Transition first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

I work as a transition advocate for innovation, ecosystems, within IIoT, and the energy system as my points of focus. I relate content to context to give greater knowledge and build the transition narratives we are all undergoing. I have been investing my time in growing my understanding, expertise, and thinking over these “core” topics.

My Innovation intent has been central to this for twenty years in consulting, mentoring and advising. This has progressively ‘funnelled down’ into recognizing the value of ecosystems as the business design for innovation in the future, to thrive and deliver more significant value creation especially in the Energy Transition that is underway.

We are innovating experts positioned at the Front End of the Energy Transition to accelerate your thinking and support the shaping of future opportunities that give growth and impact potential

I run a specialized advisor and mentoring business; it is small but has an intense focus on its clients’ needs.

Paul Hobcraft    Email: paul@agilityinnovation.com

Swiss based +41 91 751 4350.

LinkedIn Profile link:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hobcraft-innovation/

Posting reference sites:

https://innovating4energy.com

http://digital4energy.com

http://paul4innovating.com

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Or do we finally recognize, power solutions need to change radically into sources of energy, based more on renewables, that provide cleaner, more naturally sustaining environments based on wind, the sun, and natural conversion of water or the increased use of biomass? 

The energy ecosystem is not impacting many; it is affecting us all 

We are all impacted; energy drives much of our lives, and innovation feeds that appetite.

We do need to recognize that the energy transition, as its end product, electricity, is what we all have become highly dependent upon.

Electricity is powering and linking into each of our economies, into our societies. Yet we are facing a stark choice for our earth.

It is how we innovate our energy solutions will enable us to move towards a clean energy future

The post Challenges within the Energy Transition first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

It is the researching, knowledge and insights gained that give awareness, growth opportunities and the necessary identification. Our role is to extract this orientation and give the identification by our front end work

Connecting Innovation is visualized in this Mind Map of the possible connecting parts.

Translating any positioning needs to be thought through and based on a detailed evaluation of where new thinking comes into play

The post Points of Value first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.