How do you encourage engagement? How do you create the conditions that enable collaboration and cooperation to occur? How can we combine all the forces that make up the Energy Transition?

In the past week or so, I have gained a growing belief we are building the momentum to bring the different sources within the Energy Transition together. The conditions are being created.

Let me briefly provide a few stand-out ones that give encouragement

Firstly in Brussels a Clean Tech Investment meeting took place, nicely summarized by Ann Mettler, the Vice President at Breakthrough Energy. Ann posted “Clean Tech Investment: Top of Mind in Brussels

What a whirlwind: In less than 24 hours, I had two opportunities to talk investment, at a ‘Clean Transition Dialogue’ hosted by EVP Maroš Šefčovič, in the presence of EC President Ursula von der Leyen and a ‘High-Level Investor Dinner’ with Commissioner Iliana Ivanova.

Briefly she noted the significant talking points:
More project finance
Mobilize institutional investors
Double down on public guarantees
Innovation Fund +++
EU Climate Bank Needs Laser Focus on Clean Tech
Better planning, guaranteed contracts
DG Competition reality check

That set of bullet points gives only the top layer of an incredible amount of work going on in support of clean energy tech to give it momentum and shows just one of Ann’s incredible personal energy and commitment to getting the Clean Energy underway (Link to post)

Secondly, the host of that session Maroš Šefčovič the 1st European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal stated:

“Securing Europe’s industrial competitiveness is an important overarching priority. Today, President Ursula von der Leyen and I sat down with more than 20 representatives of key clean tech sectors, as part of a series of clean transition dialogues, to boost the industrial dimension of the #EUGreenDeal.” (Link to post)

My third observation point is The Energy Resilience Leadership Group – A Strong Call for Action

In Munich, recently, this group celebrated the first birthday of the Energy Resilience Leadership Group. Launched a year ago with Bill Gates and Ann Mettler of Breakthrough Energy, it has become a true coalition of the willing.

“This multistakeholder initiative aims to strengthen Europe’s energy resilience by rapidly bringing climate technologies to scale.”

Then, my fourth point of encouragement was from Christian Bruch, President and Chief Executive Officer @Siemen

Christian left the Munich Security Conference and headed straight for Siemens Energy Abu Dhabi offices, where they inaugurated their Global Innovation Center, located within Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. Bridging continents and cultures. This is Siemens Energy’s fourth hub for global collaboration, joining their other Innovation Centers in Berlin, Orlando, and Shenzhen.

“The vision for this Innovation Center is to be a hub for knowledge transfer, co-creation, and robust collaborations that will speed up our journey toward a net-zero future. Zero is the number worth highlighting here. Because by 2050, the United Arab Emirates aims to achieve net-zero emissions, making the Emirates the first Middle East and North African nation to do so.”

My fifth encouragement point was during the launch of the Innovation Center event, Dietmar Siersdorfer– the Middle East Managing Director at Siemens Energy, added a further important aspect of collaborations, engagement and celebration.

“Partnership is a powerful force, and this week, we had the honour of hosting 150 senior leaders from various industries in the UAE at a gala dinner to celebrate our collaborative efforts. Engaging with so many customers and partners who have been instrumental in advancing the region’s energy transition over the years was gratifying.”

Each of these is a dynamic layer of the Energy Movement that is gathering momentum and underway.

I feel the momentum and equally am getting ready for its impact. My Quest for Energy Work.

In my world of focusing on the energy transition, I have recently been arguing for the need to think more about organizing all these different ecosystems.

I have provided different pieces on thinking about the impact of Ecosystems on the Energy Transition.

For instance, “Considering the Design of the Energy System” emphasises the benefits of sharing IP, knowledge, research, market insights, and general improvement potentials when considering Ecosystems within the Energy Transitions, where collaborations are growing in importance and need. I outline ten areas of consideration.

Then, “Recognizing success stories of Ecosystem thinking in the Energy Transition” These success stories demonstrate ecosystem thinking is pivotal in driving the energy transition and creating positive impacts across industries. Collaborations between stakeholders with diverse expertise are crucial for addressing complex energy challenges and achieving sustainable outcomes.

Then “We need fresh perspectives in our thinking towards the Energy Transition“. I have been on a revamping mission, so on this knowledge site, besides “latest posts”, I raise relevant issues and offer solutions to help traverse differences and individual company needs by suggesting a more open ecosystem thinking and design in different structured ways to assist in the energy transformation we urgently need.

My mission within the Energy Transition

“My mission is to leverage the concept of Ecosystem thinking and design to unleash its potential and accelerate innovative, sustainable and progressive solutions in changing our Energy approaches to ones that lead to greater collaboration and co-creation to solve a global challenge and break down the complexities within this.”

So, I focus on seeking out and building change at the front end of the energy system.

It is at this front end of energy change that the importance of Innovation, ingenuity and creativity emerges in this Ecosystem of thinking and design.

Let me try to articulate the importance of these elements within the context of Energy Ecosystem thinking and design. My job is to bring them out and give them the power of engagement:

1. Innovation as the Catalyst for Energy Transformation:
   • Position innovation as the driving force behind the energy transformation, emphasizing that technological breakthroughs, business models, and processes are pivotal for achieving sustainable energy goals.
   • Build out examples of innovative solutions within the energy sector, from advancements in renewable energy technologies to novel energy storage and distribution approaches.
2. Ecosystems as Innovation Hubs:
   • Highlight the role of business ecosystems as natural incubators for innovation. Ecosystems bring together diverse talents, expertise, and resources, fostering an environment where creative ideas can flourish and be translated into practical solutions for the energy industry.
3. Creativity in Problem-Solving:
   • Stress the need for creative problem-solving in overcoming the complex challenges of the energy transition. Encourage thinking beyond traditional boundaries and embracing unconventional ideas to address issues such as intermittency in renewable sources or optimizing energy storage systems.
4. Cross-Industry Collaboration:
   • Emphasize the value of cross-industry collaboration within the energy ecosystem. Encourage partnerships with technology companies, startups, and organizations from other sectors to bring fresh perspectives and diverse skill sets, sparking innovative approaches to energy challenges.
5. Ingenuity in Sustainable Business Models:
   • Showcase innovative and sustainable business models that are emerging within the energy industry. This could include successful collaborations, new renewable project financing models, or creative energy efficiency approaches that go beyond conventional practices.
6. Ecosystems as Catalysts for Creativity:
   • Articulate how business ecosystems provide the fertile ground for creativity to thrive. By breaking down silos and encouraging open collaboration, ecosystems create a dynamic environment where ideas can be shared, refined, and implemented at a pace not achievable in isolated settings.
7. Agile and Adaptive Ecosystems:
   • Stress the importance of agility and adaptability within business ecosystems. The energy landscape is evolving rapidly, and ecosystems that can embrace change and quickly pivot in response to new challenges will be better positioned to drive innovation and stay ahead of the curve.
8. Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators:
   • Highlight initiatives that nurture and empower the next generation of innovators within the energy sector. This could involve educational programs, partnerships with research institutions, and mentorship opportunities to ensure a continuous influx of fresh ideas and perspectives.

We need to recognize we need to go way beyond the talking stage and underscore the momentum I feel is underway in the Energy Transition. “We” must become highly organized around innovation, ingenuity, and creativity through the context and powerful enabler of Business Ecosystem thinking and design.

My aim here is to connect all of the momentum or “dots” in emphasizing the importance of getting organized to encourage and inspire all stakeholders to actively engage in co-creating a sustainable energy future and talk to me about how to go about it effectively.

The post Engagement within the Energy Movement first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

By fostering greater collaboration and co-creation within the Energy Industry, it is becoming crucial to consider Ecosystems in design and thinking. Ecosystems designed well are robust for navigating the complex landscape of any Energy transition.

The Energy transition we are all facing has such high levels of complexity and challenge. We are undertaking a radical redesign of our energy systems where renewables based on clean energy, decarbonization or low carbon, new distributed business models and rapidly growing demands for electricity are all compressed into a thirty-year agenda to achieve net zero. Collaboration, cooperation and coordination will be paramount, and this is where Ecosystems and Platform technology will become essential to manage these “multiple” transformations needed.

Here in this post is a structured argument for promoting Business Ecosystem thinking and design for those involved in the Energy System, emphasizing the benefits of sharing IP, knowledge, research, market insights, and general improvement potentials when it comes to considering Ecosystems within the Energy Transitions, where collaborations are growing in importance and need. I outline ten areas of consideration.

There is a significant amount to think through when it comes to setting up and managing within a collaborative Ecosystem, especially in such an industry as the Energy or specific parts of it, be these geographical or sub-sectors (Grids, Hydrogen, Hard-to-Abate, Wind, Solar, Storage, Europe, China etc., etc).

There has been a reasonably protective environment in the Energy sector with limited choices due to the significant investment in assets and infrastructure, long-term financial commitments, managing these over extended times for risk and continuous investment, primarily operating in highly regulated market conditions over many years. The impact of suddenly opening up and understanding the risks and effects this might have on these investments is causing a natural pause in making a radical change, but can we afford this?

The energy transition brings huge uncertainty to all involved in it in areas of technological change, radically different competition and regulatory needs, the management of the different assets being installed, digitalization and community or customer engagement. It is not one way anymore or our way; this transition is very different.

The idea of collaborating across multiple needs will have to determine where and what value this brings to all the parties involved. This is the critical starting point of Ecosystem design. One prime example where collaborations can start to learn together to extend into an Ecosystem in design is the focus on converging technologies and adopting common standards and commonality.

I have recently provided extensive coverage of how Ecosystems often need to be interconnected to achieve a more outstanding design for sustaining and collective prosperity. In the seven-part series on my ecosystem4innovating.com, you can start by reading the summary of this hierarchy of business ecosystem needs. Equally in supporting this series I provided fifteen (I know!) posts on different aspects of Ecosystems to consider on my paul4innovating.com site, one example is breaking down resistence.

The need when considering any Energy Ecosystem thinking and design

1. Holistic Perspective and Transition Planning:
   • Energy transitions involve multifaceted challenges, from technological advancements to policy changes. A business ecosystem approach allows for a holistic understanding of the interconnected elements and their dependencies.
   • Collaborative efforts enable a comprehensive view of the entire value chain, identifying synergies and gaps that individual entities might overlook.
   • The Energy Transition involves diverse components such as renewable energy sources, grid modernization, energy storage, and sustainable technologies. A business ecosystem approach provides for a comprehensive and growing shared understanding of these elements and facilitates integrated planning and exchanges for a seamless transition.

2. Accelerated Innovation in Ecosystems for Sustainable Technologies:
   • Energy industry transitions require rapid innovation to meet sustainability goals and address climate change. Collaborative ecosystems provide a platform for pooling resources, expertise, and technologies.
   • By sharing knowledge and research, participants can collectively accelerate the development and adoption of innovative solutions, reducing duplication of efforts and optimizing resources.
   • Collaboration within the ecosystem can specifically target innovation in renewable energy technologies, energy storage solutions, and smart grid systems. Joint research and development efforts can accelerate the deployment of sustainable technologies crucial for the Energy Transition.

3. Mitigating Risk in Transition Investments:
   • The energy industry is inherently risky, with technological uncertainties, market dynamics, and regulatory changes.
   • By distributing risks across multiple stakeholders, the impact of uncertainties can be minimized, making it more feasible for organizations to invest in transformative projects.
   • Collaborative ecosystems provide a mechanism for risk-sharing, ensuring that the economic burden of uncertainties is distributed among multiple stakeholders, making it more feasible for organizations to invest in transformative projects.

4. Cost Efficiency:
   • Ecosystems promote resource efficiency by avoiding redundant investments in research and development. Shared knowledge and insights can lead to product development and commercialization cost reductions.
   • Coordinated efforts in infrastructure development, such as shared grids or storage facilities, can also lead to cost savings for the entire ecosystem.
   • Sharing insights and data across the Ecosystem provides a diverse range of knowledge and learning to improve efficiencies and seek higher productivity gains.
   • By providing growing insights and expertise encourages fresh investment and capital in understanding the data, benefits and impacts of assessing commercial returns.

5. Collective Influence on Global Energy Policies:
   • The Energy Transition is a global imperative, and collaborative ecosystems provide a unified voice for the industry in engaging with international policymakers. By working together, organizations can contribute to developing global energy policies that support sustainable practices and facilitate the transition on a broader scale.
   • Well-established Ecosystems with a solid leading voice can shape and influence others; recognizing the emerging (best) practices and broader adoption of these approaches will provide growing insights and leading ways to operate in the future.

6. Optimizing Investment in Transition Infrastructure:
   • Shared resources and insights within the ecosystem can help optimize investments in critical infrastructure for the Energy Transition, such as developing shared renewable energy facilities, storage infrastructure, and intelligent grid systems. This collaboration reduces costs and accelerates the deployment of necessary infrastructure.
   • The need is to shape standards for emerging technologies and infrastructure approaches not just on a national but international level for a global scale in emerging proven solutions that meet the multiple agendas of cost, reliability, security, scaling up potential and low carbon.

7. Regulatory Influence, Shared Insights for Regulatory Alignment:
   • Collaborative ecosystems have a stronger collective voice when engaging with policymakers and regulators. This can influence the creation of supportive policies and regulations that foster innovation and sustainable practices.
   • Unified efforts are more likely to shape a favourable regulatory environment for the energy transition, overcoming barriers that individual organizations might face.
   • The regulatory landscape plays a pivotal role in shaping the Energy Transition. Collaborative ecosystems enable industry players to share insights, lobby collectively for supportive policies, and navigate regulatory challenges more effectively, fostering an environment conducive to sustainable energy practices and building stronger Business & Government partnerships.

8. Market Expansion:
   • Ecosystems provide a platform for companies to access new markets and diversify their offerings. Organizations can tap into each other’s customer bases and distribution channels by collaborating.
   • This can lead to increased market penetration for sustainable energy solutions, as well as creating new business models that cater to emerging needs.
   • A focused business ecosystem approach can be leveraged to expand markets specifically for sustainable energy solutions that can leapfrog past stages of necessary investments.
   • Collaboration allows for joint marketing efforts, shared customer bases, and the creation of new business models that cater specifically to the evolving needs of the Energy Transition and the diverse customer and technology needs (on-demand, EV charging, evolving solutions, two-way flows).

9. Stakeholder and Community Trust and Reputation:
   • Open collaboration fosters transparency and builds trust among stakeholders, including customers, investors, and the public. This can enhance the reputation of the entire ecosystem and its diverse participants.
   • A positive reputation is increasingly crucial in attracting investments, partnerships, and customers, especially in industries undergoing significant transitions.
   • Social licence is vital for community engagement and civil voice to have higher inclusion levels in policy framing, implementation, mutual obligation, and association.

10. Building a Long-Term Resilient Energy Ecosystem:
    • The Energy Transition introduces new challenges, including intermittency in renewable energy sources, building resilience and response differently and, for example, the need for advanced energy storage solutions.
    • A collaborative ecosystem builds resilience by fostering joint efforts against external shocks and unforeseen challenges by creating a support network. Entities within the ecosystem can adapt more effectively to emerging challenges, ensuring the sustainability of the energy transition over the long term.

By emphasizing the specific challenges and opportunities inherent in the Energy Transition, any Ecosystem initiative becomes more tailored and compelling by the time invested by the stakeholders, the commitment to being open and ready to exchange knowledge. We need to think about the business case the barriers and issues to overcome, and the broader points of any blueprint of how this evolves, influences and shapes

As one of its objectives, it must showcase how a collaborative ecosystem approach is beneficial and essential for overcoming the unique hurdles posed by the transition to a sustainable energy future and how it “learns”, that collective learning, so as to enable it to work.

In summary, a business ecosystem approach is about sharing resources and creating a collective intelligence that propels the entire Energy industry or sub-sector forward. The energy transition is a shared challenge, and by adopting a collaborative mindset, organizations can amplify their impact, increase resilience, and drive meaningful change.

The post Considering the design of the Energy Ecosystem first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

I often wonder about the rigor of assessments and the lack of a common approach when evaluating or assessing the contributions of new concepts or innovation solutions in any Energy Transition and the broader impacts these can have. So does this 18S framework provide this?

So what makes up the 18S framework to assess any change and innovation in the Energy transition?

I feel this framework can apply to any energy transition and provides a common point of evaluation with consistency in each part of the 18S to evaluate for efficiencies, affordability, reliability, accessibility, availability, dependability, abundance, and effectiveness.

The elements and dimensions of this 18S can determine what we need to work through and understand to gain a more “holistic” overview, especially coming from any changes and new innovative solutions.

I certainly got the inspiration from this paper for constructing this 18S for evaluating new energy transition innovation solutions.

I came across this 18 S approach in a paper by Dincer & Acar “Innovation in Hydrogen Production,” 2017. It struck me as an excellent way to work around all involved in any evaluation of working through the energy Transition in future evaluations.

The depth of assessment for a very detailed hydrogen evaluation was impressive in this paper, “Innovation in Hydrogen Production” It gave an extensive evaluation of hydrogen broken down by this 18S framework. It is well worth reading.

Here I provide a brief note of ideas for each of these 18S as a prompter and stimulus, no more.

At this point, it is not a comprehensive explanation of each part just a trigger to establish a possible Energy Transition Evaluation that covers many of the essential bases.

Source

There is a strong need to identify reliable, affordable, abundant, and clean sources focused on replacement with renewable resources solutions.

For instance, renewable sources offer the best opportunity for reducing GHG emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Selected sources where emissions, efficiencies, cost, renewability, and multi-generation options can be compared.

Systems

There is always a clear need to identify, develop and implement efficient and effective systems.

Systems should address all critical aspects of design, construction, operation, and maintenance. Compliance with the requirements reduces the system risk to a safe level.

Regardless of the type of energy innovation, innovative systems need evaluation, for potential cost minimization, Emissions reduction, size decrease, Improved reliability, and durability. Increased system efficiency, less complexity, more efficient.

Service

Services should support new connections between energy supply and demand. This can be done in either centralized or decentralized ways, possibly improving overall system flexibility, possibly improving overall system flexibility.

In any added value of services, to extend, to extend the scope, value, and flexibility become important to evaluate.

Scope

It is necessary to define the scope and proceed accordingly in any research and development activities or evaluation and assessment of what it sets out to achieve.

The interconnected characteristics of the present energy systems – including production, distribution, and conversion processes are challenging to decision-makers aiming to stimulate a widespread energy transition.

A well-defined and developed scope needs to account for the impact of any change-over, and possible drops in existing efficiencies before new innovation solutions gain their levels of suggested benefits.

Staff

A well-trained staff is required in every domain of a changing energy transformation, ranging from research to commercialization and from production to utilization. What knowledge is transferable, and what needs to be learned?

Staff need to gain experience in the development of safety criteria, different codes, standards, certification, and approval needs where adoption gains are shared internationally to speed up competency and establishment.

During the transition to new systems, user competency and approval are very essential for gaining an understanding and encouragement for change.

Scale-up

There is a strong need to place an emphasis work on scaling up for large-scale applications. Scaling up can reduce unit costs of production, delivery, and storage, how is this being explained?

Knowing how any scaling-up has quantifiable potential to reduce costs, how is this addressed?

Safety

Safety is a significant topic to deal with, especially for any new technologies or system changes

What is being proposed as new safety procedures and standards, accident procedures, and different user competencies (in-home usage for example)

Do safety procedures and standards change if energy solutions or designs have different characteristics compared to the current ones used in the market?

Scheme

The goal is to organize existing schemes so that they work together towards a mutual energy “connected” target, a new energy system.

There is a need to develop schemes for dealing with changing production, storage, handling, transportation, delivery, and end-use. For instance, a variety of alternatives are available and how have they been assessed,

Sector

Sectoral integration is essential to properly identify the advantages and disadvantages of changing existing emission mitigation strategies and suggesting new and different optimum pathways among different end-use sectors and their implications.

Also, it is important to make sure that today’s investment decisions do not risk the development of innovative technologies in the long term

In energy end-use sectors, technological advancement, the enhancement and extending existing technologies, the development of novel and more efficient technologies, and behavioral alteration to decrease energy use, including converting to low-carbon alternatives all can have sectorial implications.

Solution

A solution-based strategy is important in developing the right technologies and their implementation for sectoral use. and offering solutions to global energy-related issues.

We need to encourage the discovery of solutions to address global energy challenges via collaboration with different industries, companies, agencies, institutions, universities, local and global organizations, and stakeholders, and these collaborations might offer very different longer-term solutions. that aim to minimize costs, enhanced system efficiencies, and accelerate market introduction.

We always need to take social and environmental impacts into account to gain a wider public understanding of any solution change.

Fundamental research should consider solutions that are solid, sound, and promising and are clearly advancements on the existing.

Stakeholder

All stakeholders, academia, industries, government agencies, NGOs, etc. should come together in achieving the energy transition, it has an impact on all of our lives. Stakeholder involvement is an essential requirement.

Stakeholder education and involvement could potentially increase public approval and consequently eliminate several possible problems and long and often needless delays during the transition.

The success of stakeholder involvement is determined by their collaboration, mutual
actions and decisions, and tacit and binding agreements. Is this adequately addressed?

Standardization

There is an urgent need to develop the right standards to correctly govern the process of implementing and developing technical standards so as to cover the entire spectrum of solutions offered, so they can be compared and evaluated.

Standardization is vital to the development of an effective energy infrastructure where international codes and standards should be strengthened and harmonized globally to accelerate and optimize the changes needed.

Subsidy

During the transition to different-based energy systems, subsidies are essential to start and speed up the transition. Short and long-term subsidies promote the initial acceptance of changing energy systems; they can also help during scale-up and introduction of innovative solutions to new energy markets, able to adopt new technologies without going through longer “learning curves”.

When properly used, subsidies can support innovative technologies to be effectively delivered to the public very quickly, often generating early consumer interest.

It is important to recognize subsidies should be distributed between end users, manufacturers, and supply systems in order to stimulate the energy market and minimize or share the investment risk by all parties.

Stimulation

There is a need to implement stimulation packages for practitioners, technologists, engineers, etc. who are primarily responsible for implementing any new technologies.

Investment (i.e. venture capital) and early market deployment can provide early stimulation, so as to enable research, development, and demonstration of activities to accelerate new innovative energy solutions.

Thorough policies by governments and authorities can also stimulate collaborations between different sectors, research organizations, institutions, industries, and relevant players in the energy field so as to trigger and stimulate the success of innovative systems.

Structure

It is necessary to develop a structural approach at every step of the energy transition. Covering future production, storage, transportation, conversion, and utilization in various sectors, providing regular assessments of the existing structure, changes occurring, and the impact effect to encourage earlier conversion outlining associated costs.

There is recognition that extensive research, design, and demonstration are required to support the energy transition change systems and can radically alter the existing structures.

Strategy
It is necessary to develop strategies for outlining the advantages of any new innovative technology or infrastructure change and addressing their true implementation, impact, and effect.

Such a strategy covers a plan of action or policy designed to achieve the ultimate goal of switching to new solutions and its contribution to the energy transition economy.

A well-developed strategy is needed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of existing energy compared to future ones.

Support

Evaluating many support projects can enhance the understanding of the interactions among different energy sectors.

Since innovative energy solutions are evolving and emerging fast, it requires urgent support academically, technically, financially, institutionally, and politically to contribute. This support is required for the research, design, development, building, and testing, and the final support of the scaling up.

Active and visible support is critical for technological advancements and public acceptance.

Sustainability

The vision of the twenty-first century is that sustainable energy systems need to shift to more favorable and sustaining future ones.

Any new innovative system should support the main pillars of sustainability: better efficiency, better cost-effectiveness, better resource use, better design and analysis, better energy security, and a better environment.

A holistic sustainability view is needed across multiple dimensions, covering energy impact changes, environmental, economic, social, and political dimensions.

The need is looking for promising solutions for global challenges in a sustainable fashion.

Views need to specifically address problems related to climate change, the present dominance and limited nature of fossil fuels, growing energy demands, and the different impact assessments.

Sustainability needs to be evaluated for, impact, efficiencies, affordability, reliability, accessibility, availability, dependability, abundance, and effectiveness as these all contribute to a different sustaining future at individual, local, regional, national, and global levels.

As a summary

The complexity we find in evaluating what to consider in assessing and recommending any change in the Energy System does need common levels of cross-comparison.

The elements and dimensions of this 18S framework can achieve a solid assessment of the critical aspects of any energy transition assessment.

The post Working through a proposed Energy Transition Evaluation first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

I struggle increasingly with individual energy organizations’ pledges of moving their solutions towards a carbon-neutral future. The mixture of reports, initiatives, and viewpoints all move towards the transformation of the energy system but they all admit or fail to address TWO crucial aspects.

Firstly the limited time we have to make such a transition in their offerings of new and different imaginative ways to change the current dynamics within our energy systems. Secondly how each organization alone cannot achieve it with limited or no alternative suggestions to how to overcome this “constraint”. Well, this post is about one alternative well worth considering.

One area of potential to bridge is the collaborations at the multiple firm levels. There is a weakness that deprives the ecosystem of a greater “collective action and innovation” to achieve a more accelerated pathway to the Energy Transition.

The Energy Transition has a rich network of complimentary ecosystems all keeping the energy transition change moving at a ‘certain’ level of momentum but is it good enough, I don’t think so.

The sheer number of Energy companies working on solutions within the Energy Transition is vast, varied and geographically spread. Each is struggling to get out of their (self-made) islands of knowledge to grow their business value through mostly individual innovation solutions.

We then have an Ecosystem of Governments and intergovernmental organizations providing policy suggestions and directions, offering sources of analysis, central data collection and interpretation along with proving reference and exchange points and forums. Then you have general and highly specialised Consulting firms, and investing institutions that are all constantly providing insights and supporting solutions.

We need to find new ways of collaborating and that means applying ecosystem thinking and platform solutions. Let me suggest one as an opener to this thinking.

I believe we need to expand the carbon-neutral future into a greater common appeal and that is far more the working together. When you look at individual organizations’ activity there is significant overlap, duplication and limitation. Their internal R&D resourcing is constrained, often specific projects are extended into selective partnerships to complement their efforts and allow them to bring innovative solutions to the market more quickly but these have significant limitations.

My question is how can we bring together a number of organizations to work in a broader, more ambitious innovation ecosystem of collaborations?

I decided to have a very extended conversation with my new colleague, ChatGPT in a very structured way on building an inspiring energy narrative that looks for higher firm levels of innovation ecosystem collaboration.

I decided to bring Schneider Electric, Siemens (both AG and Energy separate entities) and Enel together for this conversation.

None of these actually held a conversation with me on this concept, I draw on my knowledge and research of them and engaged my colleague (ChatGPT) to rapidly investigate, interrogate and assess. So here is the result:

Each of these companies has made real strides in their sustainability profiles and innovation capabilities for the Energy Transition.

With the help of my *colleague” I built up individual profiles of each of these companies, what steps they have taken in building up their credentials, their implementation records of how they delivered, checking these against stated or inferred business models and market positioning. I also looked at how they in broad terms undertake the designing, developing and delivering of new concepts and their reliance on both internal processes and external tools and collaborations that complement their R&D efforts.

Taking a further deeper look at their encourage challenges to solutions through the many various means of contests, accelerator programmes and open innovation platforms that help drive innovation bringing in other companies, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and universities to develop solutions to real-world challenges

Established were some measures of success that are often complex, time-consuming and have multiple factors influencing outcomes. The financial performance, reputation, stakeholder engagement and sustainability impact were considered as well as customer satisfaction and employee engagement

A further investigation was made of the (limited) cooperation between the organizations (Schneider Electric, Siemens and Enel) and you begin to think of the beneficial aspects of addressing global challenges of energy transition and sustainability and consider the mechanisms for collaboration.

At this point of the investigation, the concept of a neutral platform was considered.

Different examples were identified that could provide this helpful, knowledgeable and higher levels of neutrality. In this exploring different options you raise the natural boundaries of what a collaboration like this might need to overcome. These can be competing priorities, intellectual property rights, organizational structures and cultures. Also, regulatory and legal barriers, communication and coordination issues and the funding and resources of any combined initiative need to consider.

The question then looped back to what broad areas require greater collaboration that can be considered that might bring together Schneider Electric, Siemens and Enel together.

A level of commonality in market focus or need to provide/ serve and some legal framework that might reduce legal or regulatory issues. I see each of these organizations “rooted” in the European Union as having greater synergies

The bigger issues are the Smart Grid development, Energy Storage, Grid Modernization and automation, Electricity of transport and Cybersecurity and Data collaborations as good examples where competition is transcended by energy solution needs that have common standards, potential to scale, collaborations with multiple stakeholders and policy regulators that having this level of collaboration would command with attention and respect.

My final area of thinking through with my tireless colleague questioning and framing in more structured ways took me into potential steps to consider to support this ecosystem concept.

So we got to that point, to build a concise narrative to consider the commercial arguments, the social well-being and the greater environmental impacts. Mitigation, Sustainable practices and behaviours all were flagged as needed considerations. Technical advancements, combining expertise and resources accelerate the transition, speed up the common (global) adoption of solutions, provide different business opportunities, individually and collectively and the combined “weight” of market leverage to enter new markets, extend existing and expand the customer base.

Building out a narrative around this collaborative approach took a number of tries.

It had to consider all the questioning, probing, exploring and answers raised and then consolidate this. I have three so far but I wanted to share this one. It draws in all the factors and this was where my ‘colleague’ was far more effective in its intelligence and capability to bring this into a concise view.

“Climate change is a pressing global issue that affects the environment, people’s health, livelihoods, and social well-being. To mitigate its impact, there is a need for collective action towards a carbon-neutral future. Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Enel are three organizations that have the expertise, resources, and capabilities to drive this transition.

Collaboration among Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Enel towards a carbon-neutral future can have several benefits.

Firstly, it can help mitigate the impact of climate change on communities and the most vulnerable populations.

Secondly, it can facilitate a societal shift towards more sustainable practices and behaviours. By sharing knowledge and collaborating, these organizations can help raise awareness and create a more sustainable culture that goes beyond their individual operations.

Thirdly, collaboration can help drive policy changes and regulatory frameworks that support sustainability. This would require the three organizations to work together to drive policy changes and create a more supportive environment for sustainable practices and technologies.

Fourthly, collaboration can lead to technological advancements and innovations that could help accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral future. By combining their expertise and resources, they could develop new and improved sustainable technologies that can be adopted by industries and communities around the world.

Fifthly, collaboration can create economies of scale that could reduce costs associated with the transition towards a carbon-neutral future. By sharing resources and knowledge, they could optimize their operations and develop more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

Lastly, collaboration towards a carbon-neutral future could also create new business opportunities and revenue streams for Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Enel. As the demand for sustainable solutions increases, the three organizations could leverage their collaboration to enter new markets and expand their customer base.

In summary, a collaboration between Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Enel towards a carbon-neutral future can lead to significant societal, economic, and environmental benefits. By working together, these organizations can drive the societal and policy changes necessary for a more sustainable future, develop technological advancements and innovations, create economies of scale, and create new business opportunities.

This collaboration is not only important for mitigating the impacts of climate change but also for creating a more sustainable and prosperous future for all.“

We need a System of Systems (SOS) of independent systems to form larger, more complex ones

So how can we raise the attention of a Sustainable Energy Transition opportunity, thinking in an innovation ecosystem collaboration framework? Would Schneider Electric, Siemens (AG & Energy entities) and Enel combine forces? Can they not look beyond a possible narrower interest and see the only real way to achieve any lasting Energy Transition is to think on broader ecosystem ways?

I can equally look at other major Energy players but we need this Systems of Systems approach for the Energy Transition and build out this thinking in approach otherwise, we remain with a fragmented approach of multiple voices all wanting change, intense on their areas missing the bigger needs and values of innovation ecosystem collaborations.

*Researched and developed, including separate validations and exploration from chat.openai.com, my new colleague in the office giving me greater value and structure at a faster return.

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