I really value these reflective periods. They allow you to simply “recalibrate” so you can at least start the new year off on a more purposeful set of objectives, those strategic stakes in the ground. Of course, you can argue these can simply end up as new year resolutions, often broken in the first few weeks, but hopefully, these objectives stay anchored into the ground as a firm intent, they become the foundation to build out from. Well, that’s my intent.

When I reflect back on the 2020 year, I have recognised the needs to make a significant energy change. As I posted my critical top six energy developments in 2020 in this recent post “Energy Progress- the best of 2020 leads to a great 2021″ it triggered a deeper evaluation to lead out to 2021.

The key to 2021, in my opinion, will be a real breakthrough year of innovation, based on technology invention.

“2020 advanced the commitment to the shift from fossil fuel to renewables that has real momentum in the coming years. 2021 will be the breakthrough year where the energy transition has the unstoppable forces happening.”

We are all wanting to look forward, to a different, a more engaged world in 2021.

Reviewing my recent activities around Energy Transition.

Reflecting back, moving forward. In the past two-plus years, the whole Energy Transition has been my platform to apply my innovation learning and ecosystem thinking. The Energy story has really changed my focus on where I offer support.

Firstly in December 2019, I launched the site www.innovating4energy.com and have posted over 50 articles in this twelve-month period across the whole energy spectrum. This dedicated site enables me to consolidate my thinking previously spread out over different posting sites and gave me the dedicated focus point to build my view of the energy transition, described below.

In this year, 2020, I was singled out to be in the top ten energy transition influencers by Onalytica in their Who’s in IIoT in there recent September report.

In November 2020, I was delighted to be included within the top ten hydrogen influencers that included @mariofornarelli @h2gazette @hydrogenenergy @reuters @climate @hydrogencouncil @h2europe @siemens_energy @ft and finally myself@paul4innovating. That seems great company to me!

The link to this hydrogen evaluation is via Node Graph Gallery. It provides a detailed graph representing a network of 4 588 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained “hydrogen energy” or replied to or mentioned in those tweets. It is an interesting visualization to help sort out social media and thought leaders. The evaluation was undertaken in November 2020.

Ecosystems are now becoming essential for managing the Energy Transition. My ecosystem focus is relatively narrow on Industrial IoT & the Energy Transition but it has a significant business impact when applied. I was delighted to be recognized in the Ecosystem top thought leaders on Thinkers 360, a premier thought leader and influencer marketplace for recognition across different social media channels 

Moving forward in 2021

I think the business model will radically change. Ecosystems where collaborations will become increasingly prevalent and platforms where digitalization will advance our awareness, efficiencies and effectiveness will be central to lasting change. Innovation will simply advance due to the exchanges through digital enablement between collaborators and having more diversity of opinion and seeking out that network effect. Innovation in new technology will enable the energy transition even more in the coming years.

The Energy Industry has to “embrace” both the ability to collaborate with each other to search and explore radical, innovative solutions, and that is where Ecosystem design has its real power. Also, by deploying more a platform thinking Energy solution providers and sellers will value data as the increased currency that a more diverse energy system requires to be effective and efficient.

Ecosystems and platforms are becoming vital for the Energy Transition, especially where collaborations and digitalization form an increasing transformation part.

Advancing my degrees  of separation

When you are facing complexity you need to break it down into its component parts to evaluate it, to make greater sense of those parts and attempt to bring it back into a new sense of order.

This site of www.innovating4energy.com was part of that deliberate design as the energy transition has become a central focus of mine. Yet to deliver understanding you have to apply your thinking to the other contributing parts, my degrees of separation.

Ecosystems are the way for business to evolve and have been critical to my decision to, again, separate my thinking, and provide a dedicated posting site ecosystems4innovators.  This allows that separation, identification and focal need and provide a better understanding of the value of ecosystem design.

For the platform understanding, I have again separated my thinking onto another dedicated posting site for building thinking out on a new integrated IIoT innovation engagement platform “Connecting digital, innovation and industrial” providing insights and thinking on platforms as my focal point of offering.

A final step of separation for my increased “energy purpose” has been this increased recognition building the internet of energy to provide a more focused view of digitalization within the energy system.  This will be the real enabler in constructing and layering a new energy infrastructure, where the digital and physical run in parallel, and need a high dependence on each other to design and deliver affordable, sustaining power across the entire energy system.

Innovation is always to the fore.

Lastly, in dedicated focus areas, the Energy Transition acceleration will come from increasing innovation and the constant search for improving technology or discovering breakthroughs. Innovation needs a dedicated investment appreciation.

For me, innovation has been a core area for the past twenty years. Evaluating, stimulating, encouraging, and organizing innovation by building the capacities, capabilities and competencies innovation management requires. Innovation is the catalyst of change within the Energy Transition and my critical value-adding point.

I have been providing insights, advice and concepts for innovation and many of these can be found on my dedicated posting site paul4innovating

Turning all my research towards commercial reality is ready to be applied

The last part of my 2020 year has been the sheer determination to follow up on research within the energy transition.

I have been building an extensive library of topics, articles and reports, hundreds of GIFs, partly built into an extensive Microsoft OneNote energy system and also within an expanding filing system. This work has become a real battle to index and build, but it is getting extensive and highly valuable.

For me, 2021 needs to be realization time.

My current work is working through how and where I can offer a return for my investments and provide clients’ propositions that offer value, impact and knowledge.

In these recent weeks, I am trying to work out the type of Energy Transition Service I can offer, that has a value that provides market-driven insights and can piece together in-depth reports, outlined roadmaps, and understanding of the options that the energy changes are creating for us all to understand.

I finish on my 2020 Energy Progress stating my energy journey, and what it means to me as we enter 2021.

Energy Transition needs to be generated in different ways, my positioning:

• Emphasis the value/impact of innovation within the Energy Transition (as my core). It builds out the potential to change.
• A consistent focus on being seen as a Business Builder and offer perspectives, opinions, and outlooks
• My belief that there are different aspects of activism to bring focus to this transformation and it is engaging across all of these avenues
• The scope, pace, and directions of change need a sense of urgency, and my role is to help accelerate that journey.
• The broader perspective, putting content into context, giving knowledge and insight leads to making more informed decisions, that’s my positioning.
• I see myself as the Outsider looking into the Energy World.

This focus translates into value positioning:

• The (absolute) needs within the Energy Systems require solutions and change does lie in creating impact, understanding and viable alternatives.
• The significant potential for new market design, different business models and system operation solutions offers a real business opportunity.
• The fascination with identifying new enabling technologies and exploring and exploiting these
• The Energy Transition is one of today’s big challenges in energy, climate, and our planet and needs clarity for potential clients on how it can be leveraged.
• There is so much societal need for this energy transition, it needs framing and building differently, so it attracts stakeholders to join in. The value of building that communicating positioning with the additional external perspective strengthens the narrative and broader identification.
• The desire to add more impact, understanding, and awareness to the Energy Transition, to give greater momentum to internal teams provides additional momentum and resolution.

My 2021 purpose is providing different points of insightful and impactful design in Energy transition.

I cover the Energy Transition through innovation, ecosystem and platform thinking by (deliberate) design. Interested to learn more, no time like now.

My best of Energy Wishes to you in 2021. Let’s search for synergies and making connections that are mutual and rewarding.

The post Restating my energy purpose for delivering in 2021 first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Being restricted, not able to travel has its benefits, you gain more time to climb into your own reading, research or passions. For me, this has been my “Energy Transition” year.

The sheer amount of articles, reports or webinars around all aspects of energy have been partly overwhelming but significant in their reference and knowledge gaining. This intensity of purpose towards the energy transition has given me an enormous boost in its understanding.

When I reflect back on this 2020 year, recognising the needs to make a significant energy change has really gained a very high awareness.

2020 advanced the commitment to the shift from fossil fuel to renewables that has real momentum in the coming years. 2021 will be the breakthrough year where the energy transition has the unstoppable forces happening.

Let me summarize my top six energy developments that built-in 2020 that have given a potentially lasting momentum to the energy transition that will, in my opinion, have a real impact in 2021. Plus my seventh one, a personal one, boosted my energy understanding and confirmed a growing recognition by others’ of my contributions.

Firstly, let’s look at my top six energy enablers to significantly impact the energy transition that is being undertaken. Each will have a massive impact on 2021.

ONE – We are entering the autumn of fossil-fuel generation

Coal, Oil and Gas are really on the ropes, fighting to stay relevant against the onslaught of renewables. Coal is on its way out that is for sure, the early retirements of dozens of coal plants in 2020.

Global coal consumption was such way down due to Covid-19 and renewables’ pace. Growing positioning has become far more competitive and offers real confirmation that renewables can bridge much of the energy demand.

Gas is not so far behind. The scrapping of plans to replace coal with gas and opt for clear energy portfolios and cancelled previously planned pipelines are among the issues that are putting huge pressure on the Gas Turbine business.

Power generation will be the major battlefield in 2021 to see if the “interim” argument, the bridge, takes hold or the longer-term one, of going straight for renewables wins.

The issue of a legacy for investing in Gas Turbines that have a life of thirty years or more of normally useful lifetime returns is at risk. They could quickly become stranded assets or wrongly positions in the new energy designed a system where renewables are more central.

I feel early retirement debates and required decisions to not invest in fossil fuel generation will dominate 2021. Fossil fuel-fired generation is heading for a very tough year in 2021.

TWO – The commitment to Carbon Neutrality

The commitments of both China and now the incoming US administrations recommitting to the Paris Agreement is highly significant. The whole raft of more vigorous policies, support programs and regulatory measures to tackle the CO2 emissions and the increased “drumbeat” to decarbonization will become much louder in 2021. Governments really need to “drive” change.

The continued push to carbon-free electricity is happening at an increasing rate, with the application and acceleration of clean energy technologies, and the power grids to manage and run increasingly on zero-carbon power. The energy system is being argumented with increased sector coupling management, and increase storage alternatives will be one of the top investment focus in 2021. Decarbonizing is central to all we do.

THREE.- The Race towards Hydrogen at Scale requires lower cost points.

For me, hydrogen became the big talking point of 2020. We have been deluged with Hydrogen opinions, suggested options and so much advice on how and when this “hydrogen economy” emerges into one that gives real commercial scale. Hydrogen is moving towards the alternative energy source to solve the harder-to-abate areas, bridge the wind and solar variability, and provide transport fuel alternatives in power-to-x solutions.

Green hydrogen is the place to get to, as quickly as possible. What needs to be announced in 2021 is significant breakthroughs in electrolyzer technology that can significantly upscale volume and show the promise of rapid cost reduction. The scaling trajectory will have a similar pathway that solar and wind took to get to the point where they are today where costs are required to fall dramatically to gain acceptance and adoption.

The disruptive technology breakthroughs for green hydrogen need to be delivered in 2021 to kick-start the Hydrogen revolution.

In 2021 the Hydrogen Council has to make some hard decisions. Does it continue to back all Hydrogen shades (grey, blue, green) or shape its memberships focus to one and only one Hydrogen choice, that of Green hydrogen?  Green Hydrogen is generated by the different renewables and technology solutions available; mostly solar, hydro, and wind feeding into electrolyzers.

Investment decisions and technology clarity need to be fully determined on Hydrogen Those decision and clear pathways for Hydrogen need to be nailed down in 2021. 

FOUR – The focus will shift further to reducing Greenhouse Gases in 2021

The transport industry, aviation, and shipping need to make definite inroads to find their fuel alternatives in 2021. There are options, but a winner or two needs to emergy and the industries consolidate behind these.

Methane Gas has to be given much sharper attention too, and that continues to push the oil and gas industries into getting their emissions in real shape. All greenhouse emissions in building, in industry, in transport need to be “forced” to act by Government edict and have clear time commitments to make the necessary changes to clean energy.

Bans on Gas Vehicles needs even more legislation incentive, the two or so decades needs shortening, so the laggards in the car industry finally get the incentive to commit.

2021 will see Gas Emissions becoming central to policy and which technological breakthroughs being determined as the ones to put the investment capital behind.

The one really grey area for me is translating all the talk of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) into real compelling and globally commercial solutions. If they can’t see the shift to decarbonization through renewables and green hydrogen, all the political, technological, and industry solution providers combined weight behind them to provide commercially viable CCUS solutions with blue hydrogen takes increasing hold on future energy designs. CCUS needs to have clear, scalable and proven solutions.

FIVE – Getting our Storage, Battery and Grids capable of delivering Electricity Stability

As we recognize the largescale deployment of energy storage, this has the real potential of overturning any business as usual for any electricity market needs. If it is to satisfy instantaneous demand, smooth out discrepancies between generation and loads, provide flexibility in load shifting and position both batteries and storage as the ancillary service for managing all the present and future options in power generation and consumption self-consumption.

As batteries and storage costs continue to fall and the amount of energy these can store will shift the economics of power across the grid,  displacing and disrupting plants and grids in their design, flexibility, and capabilities. Storage will upend many industry structures.

Storage system design will take a more central role, where lithium-ion, ölead-acid, flow-cells and other emerging technologies will optimise value to the needs on hand. Storage is recognized as giving two critical aspects of any energy transition, resilience and insurance to manage stability and fluctuations.

Energy storage and battery hold a critical part of the future, and 2021 will see these energy-storage systems become broader solution sets, not one-off positioning. They will become an integrated design feature, and this will emerge in 2021.

SIX– The Financial Energy Commitment Year of 2021 needs to be substantial

Financial institutions and Banks are finally making their move. Banks always want risk certainty, and they have really struggled over the investments at scale in emerging technology or alternative fuel solutions. The pretence (no other word for this, in my opinion) of their deep commitment to the energy transition has been lacking.

Banks and Financial Institutions should be “called out” and recognize their pivotal role in ‘forcing’ reducing carbon intensity as primary investors. They need to move with greater intent and purpose away from fossil fuel-related investments to renewable ones and resolve to back pioneering technologies in greater ways.

The boom of investment return needs to be seen, where Government Economic policy sends that powerful signal to the markets to commit in deeper, sustaining ways. We need to get past piecemeal or pilot projects to assess risk over a protracted time, we need bolder investment visions in investments in clean energy solutions.

Banks need to reorganize their portfolio of energy investments in radically different ways. Taking carbon intensity reduction as the core investment focus does begin to regroup individual segments in a new way of evaluation. 2021

Banks and Financial Institutions in 2021 need to finally come off the fence of backing both fossil fuel and renewables and make this reduced carbon intensity central to their investment decisions going forward.

SEVEN – My seventh one is my own deliverables in 2020 that I believe will build-out and lead to a significant “return” in 2021 for all who want to engage.

This reflection of my 2020 will be in my opening post of 2021, entitled “restating my energy purpose”.

My best of Energy Wishes to you in 2021. Let’s search for synergies and making connections that are mutual and rewarding.

The post Energy Progress- the best of 2020 leads to a great 2021. first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

image credit alamy.com via IEEE Innovation at Work

Within the energy transition, we must not lose sight of the final consumer. We have to focus on the broader aspects of “energy transition” by re-engineering much of the existing infrastructure to create smart grids, provide storage, solar for individual homes, and the ability to introduce e-mobility across the transport sector.

These are the connecting points to the end-user. They “feel” the value of the energy transition in benefit; in energy security, increased choices and greater involvement in handling their own energy costs and local energy design choices, they see the “effect of change”.

A very critical piece of the energy transition puzzle is the necessary focus on the end-user sectors of how we work, live, and be connected to the need for energy change. It is the transport, industry, and buildings that are for the vast majority of us as the places where we “interact” with that make energy transitions real.

We want to see what different energy alternatives can really provide, otherwise “energy transitions” seem to be simply occurring elsewhere.

Any transition is a “hard sell” Here, for energy, it is the combination of new system designs and ways to operate, combined with technological innovation. 

We need to achieve the most pressing need to undertake greater energy efficiency and effectiveness at the consumption end of energy. It is not just replacing energy sources; it is all about solution renewal end-to-end

The nature of the energy landscape will require the transformation of businesses, the push to find and develop new market dynamics and embrace government policy and regulations in an orderly and planned way.

This “transformational mix” gives rise to different innovation dimensions to explore, be these enabling technologies, new business models, different market designs, and changes in the methods of system operation that make up a broader innovation ecosystem of solutions.

The increased electrification of these end-user sectors of transport, buildings, and industry are providing new designs for energy systems to operate can give increased reliability, lower costs, and greater efficiency.

The solutions offered are placing increased emphasis on digitalization so that the system design is managed on a  more decentralized and democratized participation and that enables better control and management of our costs, choices, and uses.

These energy choices are beginning to break up previous monopolistic providers in power generation. Passing the choices of energy design closer to the end-user has the exciting prospect that allows us as energy users, to potentially participate in the energy market, in choice of energy supply and a growing opportunity to sell off excess energy if we are self-generating our energy.

The changes are transforming energy management as the end-user is potentially becoming very engaged in the whole transformation of their energy.

The end-user market of transport, buildings, and the industry is predicted to be making a shift of their primary energy supply from the present 15% of renewable energy to 65% by 2050. The share of Renewable power is expected to rise to 85% by 2050 (source: Irena 2018 “Global energy transformation report”) and that adds the recognition that our energy is being sourced by sustainable and clean energy means.

The design of energy systems needs to bring closer to the end-user the utilization of mini-grids to enable greater flexibility and participation in energy co-operation between transmission and distribution system operators.

These designs are building the two-way flow where excess energy can be delivered back to the grid. You as a provider of energy, start seeing the benefits of reduced bills and even earning some cash from your energy contributions.

Innovation can accelerate progress, especially at the user-end point.

The role of innovation to translate the end-user need into reality within these sectors of transport, buildings, and industry will involve changes in system designs to digitalize grid services, build more local and grid-scale energy storage, deploy significant charging solutions for electric vehicles.

Access to clean energy needs to be as transparent and energy availability on-demand, reliable, and abundant to our needs as we can design and build it.

These innovations needed are galvanizing change, they are the catalysts of any change. Energy becomes one of increasingly managing the lifecycle design and transition, innovating end-to-end so energy is constant, affordable, and always available.

We need a robust design, connecting us as individuals as well as seeing ourselves within a community of being part of the end-user market for the energy transition In my opinion;  that comes partly from telling the emerging innovating story for energy solutions in exciting and effective ways based on offering clear roadmaps of energy design.

The post Connecting the Energy Story to the Final User first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Adapted Image: IRENA

We are at the point where “the rubber hits the road” or in Green Hydrogen’s case “the water needs to turn into H2 at scale and real value” and for that to happen it needs a massive commitment across so much that is work-in-progress today.

So much of where we are in Hydrogen is more of a promise theory or intent, than a reality. We need to moderate our rhetoric and provide realism before we completely overhype the green hydrogen. Impatience and growing frustration might kill off the hydrogen solution (again).

We need to massively be able to scale out solutions like the electrolyzer. We need to radically bring down existing production costs through different technology applications and design. We have to build a dedicated infrastructure and create real sustaining market demand. Today producing hydrogen means possible energy losses on the alternative.

We need to build the business case of Hydrogens value as the alternative to fossil fuel is a task-driven by the necessary policy change, customers willing to buy and replace their existing energy systems and suppliers able to offer the guarantees that any hydrogen replacement can work in demanding, more flexible conditions and offer affordability, sustainability, is effective and efficient beyond the existing solutions.

Oh, yes, to cap this all off it has to be at competitive prices to today’s energy sources. Or alternative solutions will need to be found, such as Nuclear perhaps.  I mean not much of a challenge to switch away from fossil fuels is it?Lets state the intent: the energy transformation requires a major shift in electricity generation from fossil fuels to renewable sources like solar and wind, greater energy efficiency and the widespread electrification of energy uses from cars to heating and cooling in buildings.

Not all sectors or industries can easily make the switch from fossil fuels to electricity. Hard-to-electrify (and therefore hard-to-abate) sectors include steel, cement, chemicals, long-haul road transport, maritime shipping and aviation all need imaginative and cost-effective alternatives to the existing solutions.

In a recent report “Green Hydrogen, a guide to policymaking” released by IRENA this month you are hit by a real dose of present reality.

Green hydrogen can provide that vital link between extending and sustaining renewable electricity generation (VRE) and provide solutions to those hard-to-electrify sectors.

We know Hydrogen is, without doubt, a suitable energy carrier and also for applications remote from electricity grid dependency. Also, Hydrogen can provide a high energy density, it can serve as a feedstock for chemical reactions and is well-positioned to produce a range of synthetic fuels and feedstocks to complete much of the energy transition.

Yet the barriers we face today are formidable to realize Hydrogen’s promise, picking up on the part of this report from IRENA.

Green hydrogen is regarded as the ultimate goal, but it needs to overcome the following barriers.

1. Green hydrogen has high production costs, and adopting green hydrogen technologies is presently expensive. To offer hydrogen vehicles with fuel cells and hydrogen tanks costs at least 1.5 to 2 times more than the fossil fuel counterparts at least. Synthetic fuels for aviation are presently eight times more expensive. Transport costs are equally at an economic disadvantage.
2. There is a lack of dedicated infrastructure. We only have 5,000 KM of hydrogen transmission pipelines compared to 3 million km for natural gas. There are presently only about 470 refuelling stations. We still are debating how and where to position our hydrogen sources and can it economically and safely can be transported.
3.  The energy losses are significant. About 30-35% of the energy used to produce hydrogen through electrolysis is lost (IRENA). To convert hydrogen to other carriers such as ammonia can result in 13-25% energy loss and transporting hydrogen requires additional energy inputs, estimated at 10-12% of the hydrogen itself. Using hydrogen in fuel cells can lead to additional 40-50% energy losses. Then you have the higher the energy losses, the more renewable electricity capacity will be needed. Can wind and solar satisfy both the global supply chain of electrification and simultaneously build a green hydrogen economy to solve the harder-to-abate challenges, for example?
4. Today Hydrogen has a lack of Value Recognition. We have no green hydrogen market, no green steel industry, no green shipping fuels and still according to IRENA, basically no valuation of the lower GHG emissions that green hydrogen can deliver. Hydrogen today is not counted in official energy statistics of total final energy consumption. There are no internationally recognized ways of differentiating grey, blue or green hydrogen. We lack clear targets or incentives to promote the use of green hydrogen. We are totally inhibiting many downstream uses of green hydrogen.
5. The critical need to ensure sustainability. Knowing an electric grid is only connected to renewables gives us the chance of green hydrogen. If fossil fuels are within the mix, any associated CO2 will need to be factored in when considering what hydrogen is being produced. The reality is fossil fuels will be in the hydrogen mix for some time to come and does this become a barrier, a taxing question and national emission debates. How can we ensure that grid-connected electrolyzer does deliver hydrogen with, at least, minimum emissions? Is this the case for the pursuit of green and blue hydrogen solutions setting out to capture all of the majority of the CO2

Realizing the true potential of green hydrogen is a long, dedicated journey, it needs to have a plan that is coordinated. Delivering green hydrogen needs international collaboration, it needs aligning standards, and it needs clear financing infrastructure to be staged along its “greening” journey.

Expectations for Hydrogen to significantly contribute to the Energy Transition are 5 to 10 years away. It is how we put the time between now and then will make or break Hydrogen as the viable, perhaps only sensible solution. Yet we must be realistic, grounded and highly focused on the significant challenges to be overcome.

We do need to face reality, dampen down the present hype around hydrogen and roll up our collective sleeves to tackle a highly complex set of challenges, we do need this dose of reality.

The post A Massive Dose of Hydrogen Reality first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

We are falling into a real trap around the efforts of much of the invention and innovation we are putting into the Energy Process. We have the danger of getting our innovation balance wrong.

We are emphasizing shifting significant resources towards energy efficiency, not real energy transition work that comes from radical or breakthrough innovations. The focus on extending prolongs what we have and does not offer the transformation affect our energy systems do require to achieve a decarbonized world over the next fifty years.

We all are accepting that the energy system needs to undergo a massive transformation, one that provides breakthrough innovations in new technology, ones that do transform the energy systems. Are we striking the right balance between incremental and breakthrough innovation? I would question this.

The efficiency trap is a classic trap of all innovators. Efficiency often triumphs over other forms of innovation, such as a more distinctive range of solutions, that give breakthrough and radical potential. Why is that important?

Focusing on improving what we have, giving it more efficiency provides a quicker return on investment and certainly extends much of what we have, it provides limited investments to give short-term better returns. All good and essential stuff, but we are in danger of missing the bigger picture that is required in the energy transition.

Efficiency or Radical, that breakthrough Innovation? Getting the balance right

The efficiency idea or concept has those lead times that can easily work within the one to three-year time frame, the classic judgement time for a management team to validate their credentials in improving the bottom line and providing revenue growth.

The management of resources, costs and commitment can be managed well on the balance sheet or even through the P&L as concepts to solutions are often tangible, the problems known to be resolved and well-scoped out in clearly defined timescales and resource need. This is the ideal ground for focusing on innovation efficiency.

Seeking out more distinctive and radical designs.

Yet we are meant to be in an Energy Transition where whole systems need more radical thinking, more evolutionary or radical in its solutions offered? These are longer-term in commitments, complexity, and often tackling the unknown, searching for new technology discovery and validation. These take time and real dedication in sustained resources. Risks get compounded and justification harder, the longer and more complex a change we are attempting to undergo.

The combining of new technology, in highly collaborative and open exploratory spaces, requires more of the unknowns in cost, resources and time. this is in search of the radical or breakthroughs from the invention, innovation, engineering and technology.

Getting the balance right in  the different types of innovation

To fully decarbonize our energy systems requires far more radical design, to shift the energy source from fossil fuels to renewables is a long-term commitment.

We naturally want to form these incremental mindsets as they yield quicker returns, often with one calendar cycle of 12 months, whereas complex issues take years, sometimes decades of dedicated effort. We expect reliable returns on investments, but this is often in direct conflict with much of the research and development that Energy transformation requires.

Most of our resources are placed in working away in the trenches of incremental improvements, and these outputs make up the vast substance of innovation activity.  Many working in these trenches of innovation on a daily basis would love to be part of a breakthrough but tend to find this is always ring-fenced for a few selected others or a distant dream beyond the capacity of one individual organisation to work upon.

The needs of the immediacy of business or the search for game-changers. 

R&D  so often is simply that gazing over the fence in envy or quietly accept this divide between incremental contribution and the need for more radical breakthroughs. Their job is to simply get on with the incremental improvements that deliver to the present needs of the business, important to stay competitive but not radical enough to revolutionize or galvanize the changes the energy system really does need to deliver on the need to rapidly decarbonize and modernize the energy process.

I believe many who work within innovation simply do not share in this delineation of innovation activity, as it divides talent into separate teams, often pitting scarce innovation resource against each other, often in many unseen ways.  This divide of activities is often a real pity. Collaboration outside established borders of individual businesses still has a long way to go to become truly open innovation.

I write a lot about collaboration needs, open innovation, building out relationships and networks of collaborators but this is a complicated process, thankfully happening at improved rates from thinking in a more platform and ecosystem design way of thinking. I write on this on my dedicated ecosystems4innovators posting site. The future of more distinctive and radical innovation comes through broader collaborations.

I would suggest organizations give this incremental area far too much of a focus in their resources and efforts, to the detriment of other options. 

We should move out of the incremental trap far more and not continue to reinforce it as many do. The Energy transition requires far more radical, distinctive and breakthrough in our innovation discovery process.

Lets consistently question the incrementalists and get them thinking more about distinctive, radical innovations as we require these for any chance to deliver on the energy transition and achieve any net zero, so often talked about but not delivered upon.

The post Are you falling into the Innovation Energy Trap? first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

The pressure to stop new Coal investment is building- is that really good?

Threats & Pressures for reducing CO2 emissions

What can’t be ignored in all this action to stop coal, again to quote from the IEA report:

Steelmaking today will “kill” the Energy Transition if we do not find new innovative processes.

As the IEA report states ” New steelmaking processes are critical, but there is no one right answer”

Deep emission reductions are simply not achievable without innovation in technologies for near-zero emissions steelmaking.

Are we stopping innovation if the known Energy Providers continue to withdraw from their coal associations?

Finding a more thoughtful sustainable pathway.

The post Coal, Steelmaking and Asia first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Our landscapes seem never to change, power transmission lines spread out across the land as far as the eye can see delivering our electricity. Nothing seems to change, but nothing actually is as far from the truth.

The electricity industry is waging a sweeping transformation and in a recent report by Black & Veatch providing the present position of the state of Electricity called Strategic Directions: Electric Report, where they have gathered 600 power utility stakeholders to offer the challenges and opportunities that are occurring in the transformation being undertaken.

The challenges and opportunities are all caught up in a constantly shifting, complex ecosystem of everything, from conventional power generation to the renewable energies sources derived from the wind and sun and the significant changes underway in the use of putting in place microgrid systems.

I want to briefly summarize this report, one I would certainly recommend spending time in reading.

I have provided some of Black&Veatch’s figures to provide an opening view of the challenges and opportunities occurring in the electric power industry as a “snapshot” of what are the issues, where the investment is going. The short-term capital being made and the emerging technologies being actively considered, finally what carbon emission reductions or clean energy investments are being considered over the next ten years and beyond ten years.

The most challenging issues facing the electric industry

Hydrogen and Battery Storage are both being actively looked at or phased into the energy systems and will feature far more in the future to offer sustainability, reliability and resiliency as energy providers continue to decarbonize. Hydrogen is presently seen as a “beyond ten-year” investment, but that might significantly change if the technology ramps up in the next few years to provide scale in alternative fuels.

The report also is indicated that growing demand for electric vehicles and prosumers who want to feel empowered, engagements and feeling more in charge of generating and consuming their own energy.

The integration of generation, transmission and distribution assets is finding adaptive ways to keep ageing systems functioning at ever-increasing levels of efficiency, more resilient systems working alongside competing with the increasing shocks of severe weather, a changing climate and increased natural disasters of fire, floods and drought. The current Covid-19 pandemic has only added more complexity and the power loads moving from commercial and industrial sites to residential suburbs has added even more complications.

Where is investment going to support existing assets?

Today it is becoming essential that the whole electricity system has a clear “line-of-sight” so all these variables can be better managed. A digital backbone needs to be rapidly placed in parallel with the physical needs of any power system.

The need for constant innovation practices is demanding radical overhauls of how the electricity system is managed. To achieve reliable, resilient energy supplies needs a transformation that is formidable in its challenges, where each utility facing their own unique solutions.

The shifts occurring in short-term investments

As the power industry responds to changing consumer behaviours, unpredictable load patterns, and increasing use of distributed energy resources (DER) and other customer-driven nuances are transforming technologies.

The focus upon Innovation increasingly is based on digital information and
communication technology, including artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain technology and robotics.

Those power providers that are slow to respond to these multiple challenges and stick with a business-as-usual approach do so at their own peril, and their customers increasing frustration, increasing the risk of expensive stranded assets and higher consumer electricity prices.

Emerging Technologies becoming part of the integrated operations

The next-generation business and capability models, coupled with the deploying of new technologies ranging from DER to digitalization and
analytics across competitive and regulated markets.

One of the most exciting changes will be creating a digital twin of power plants or electric grids because it informs power system operators with understanding possible responses to certain scenarios and emergency events before they happen. The emergence of the internet of energy is coming upon all in the energy systems. We will have IoT, IIoT and now IoE within our needs to understand and integrate.

As Electricity Systems undergo some radical changes, the pace and dynamics are all adding fresh pressure on utility providers. The way business will be undertaken will rapidly change as the energy portfolio undergoes a dramatic change.

The shifts to meet carbon emissions and clean energy goals being considered.

Black&Veatch produce some excellent reports. This one providing the present position of the state of Electricity called Strategic Directions: Electric Report, where they have gathered 600 power utility stakeholders to offer the challenges and opportunities that are occurring in the transformation being undertaken is no exception. It offers a really good view of the shifts being undertaken in the Electricity Power Market.

The post The many challenges facing the electricity industry. first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Getting to the point of the digitalization of Energy in a holistic way, not piecemeal as in the past is going to take a massive mindset shift within the energy industry. We need a dedicated internet of energy that brings energy together in ecosystem designs and platform delivery.

There are so many pressures to invest fresh capital to replace existing aging infrastructure, to adapt energy sources increasingly to accommodate renewables, and to build out the resilience within the energy system, adding new storage options and reduce the variabilities and demand fluctuations.  

You can go on and on in need to invest in a very challenging, changing environment for energy. Layering-in digitalization on top just adds to the need for change, we need to fully integrate it as a core necessity.

Having a greater insight and understanding of the management of energy is going to prove crucial in the future and “going digital” provides the essential energy transformation we need, being connected up.

I certainly feel we are on the cusp of a new digital era in energy. Digital technology has been involved in the energy system for decades but its time is now to be central to any new energy management system. We need to manage not just individual assets but manage the ‘connected’ energy system from the supply, through transmission into demand.

Digitalizing the energy system can provide much of the understanding of where, when, and what to invest in and validate the why in the relevant data supporting. We need a clear line-of-sight and data needs to deliver transparency and insights to all involved in managing or providing and consuming energy.

I want to first step back here in the post to frame why the digitalization of energy is of critical importance. This ‘where, when, why, and what’ I will cover in a series of posts in the coming months that will be grouped on a new posting site, specifically dedicated to digital and energy. More on that later.

Here I want to provide an opening context on Digitalizing the Energy System, building the why

What is new, is the pace of digitalization occurring through technological innovation, providing solutions that enable the energy system to be transformed?

Digitalization across the energy landscape is determining the system-wide changes of connectivity; it is linking, monitoring, aggregating, and controlling assets to help resolve a fundamental “blurring” between who and what supplies and who consumes energy to provide a greater ‘line-of-sight to energy management for all who need to know.

Having a reliable energy system is one of the enablers for economic growth and social well-being.

We are presently shifting away from a total reliance on an all centralized power system into distributed solutions and flexible options in fuel inputs and their management.

The old paradigm of central grids will undoubtedly continue to provide the energy infrastructure backbone in years to come, it will remain central to keeping the balance within the electricity transmission network.

The changes are occurring more ‘down the line’ in designing distributed systems. There will be significant differences at the local level ( variable inputs and final point of supply) to trade and deliver energy through different grid edge designs and services.

Digitalization brings us closer to the end-user – knowing your grid edge and how to respond

The closer in proximity to end-use (homes, business, vehicles) is the grid edge as the hardware (things we can touch and see) such as solar panels, meters, energy storage systems, thermostats, appliances, and building controls. These “things” are being designed to connect and combined with grid edge software that triggers demand and optimization.

We are achieving through software the ability for greater data analytics or planning information that allows for a new form of aggregation. This gives us all a greater engagement in managing our energy consumption and begin to sell surplus electricity through the management of their own personal energy system.

What we do need to undertake as basic initial steps were nicely outlined recently in a Siemens Middle East Energy Week by Beatrix Natter, the Executive Vice President, Transmissions at Siemens.

Beatrix Natter outlined very succinctly some of the opening steps before we can see any platform for the Internet of Energy or achieve some investment value from any digitalization investment

Firstly we have to digitalize the product, each point that can provide valuable data so as to enable them to produce real-time data. This is her physical to digital step currently being undertaken, this gives the first chance to understand the operating conditions of the machine or connecting point. This delivers improved asset management.

Then the second step is to build the same digital capability into substations to understand the edge of grids. This gives options to manage power and continuity within the system

Thirdly to make connections beyond two points to begin to turn this into a dynamic data system. It is then the automation of energy flows and intelligence becomes the value of these (essential) investments from the digital investments required.

In the future, there becomes the opportunity to build a physical and digital twin that mirrors and takes all the connection points into optionality and scenario planning to plan the existing system and build-out for reducing gaps and variance in the future one.

Digitalization gives choices to all to build out a most robust model

Not only does the digitalization of the energy system provide “data understanding” and the potential for real-time information and insights, but it can also give the building blocks to validating and scenario building required to narrow the gaps between demand and supply.

To achieve this you need “line of sight” and having a fully connected digital energy system can give real-time potential and the ability to improve predictability and the different “switching” opportunities to respond in fat more timely and focused ways.

Today the energy system is planned more to be overbuilt, to power up generation rapidly to offset sudden (ofter unpredicted and surging) demand as understanding is limited to past history.  Much of the predictive understanding is based on individuals insights or data crunching, based on spreadsheets and limited estimates.

Capturing real-time data does not take out all the anticipated demand estimates that still will be judgments but more on real-time data that can give a greater richness of understanding to make more informed decisions.

The digitalization and innovation of this grid edge will transform the electricity industry as it can give a choice to the end-user on preferences, what they chose to connect into (power consuming connected devices), and give them a greater awareness of what makes up the energy chain.

The end-user can begin to demand electricity sources that are fuelled by renewable energy; they become more interested in their carbon footprint and become prosumers where they achieve higher interactions, growing expectations they are in reliable systems, and offered protection and security in what they engage within.

Digitalization can become the catalyst for engagement and connectivity within the energy system.

Its value is to provide safety, productivity, accessibility, reliability, transparency, resilience and offer sustainability and growing confidence that ‘our’ power is readily available 24 x 7.  The digitalization of the energy system provides the background in the new architecture of the energy system that interconnects and drives our energy solutions.

As more and more deployment takes place, providing new connected technology, we see autonomous cars, home systems, and connected smart buildings offered as new end-user solutions. It is the data that is allowing AI and machine learning that are giving us this new form of digital intelligence.

The application of digital technologies is widely impacting end-use.

Today we are seeing increased sensors and use of devices that are optimizing process controls, providing industrial automation, give us smart thermostats, autonomous cars, and trucks, for example.

Digitalization is shaping our industries, our transport systems, and making our buildings more intelligent. Having greater knowledge through data insight makes us smarter to manage what we have.

Digitalization Of Energy 

The goal needs to be that the digital technologies we introduce need to help us become more connected, intelligent, efficient, by having, resilience, reliability, and sustainability built into the energy system we are designing.

Energy systems are changing significantly; we are all becoming plugged into a progressively digitally renewable world. The internet of energy is way overdue to manage the changes in much of our energy transformation to reduce its complexity.

The post Building the Internet of Energy first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Image source and rights: Siemens Energy

I have just finished the third and final day of panel events offered by #SiemensEnergyME in their #EnergyWeek. I took the time to attend all of the panels, the debates, the complexities, and the significant differences as starting points in the #energytransition we are all undertaking was well brought home.

The panels were full of highly knowledgeable people, the hands-on ones that are dealing with the energy issues of today each day, and thinking through the ones for tomorrow. Siemens drew in Ministers, CEO’s, Senior Management, CFO’s, CTO’s and Director-Generals to offer insights and create the atmosphere for what I would call “creative tension” that good knowledge brings to a debate.

The third day was positioned on Sustainability with digitalization as key to the future of solving grid complexity and the growing challenges of renewable integration.

So three themes over three days, transformation, innovation, and sustainability- each was embedded in each day and panel actually.

Also, the second panel on day three took on the role of Hydrogen but got so caught up in this it missed the other part of ‘driving sector coupling’. In many ways, the extra time devoted to the Hydrogen economy aspects needed all the time.

The final session was a fireside chat facilitated by John Defterios with Christian Bruch, the CEO of Siemens Energy.

Great insights yet again on day three

See day ONE “Transforming the Middle East and Africa for the Energy Transition” and day TWO “Agility and Adaptability in any Energy Transition” in my reflections and observations

In all three sessions on day three, you gained some terrific insights and impressions of the sheer size of the Energy Transition being undertaken. It is enormous and as the world has set thirty years to make a huge dent in carbon emissions, it is of the utmost imperative to get going now on the changes needed today to give any “fighting chance” to deliver on the commitments made by each of the 190b plus countries that signed the Paris Agreement

Climate change is the driving force, the energy transformation is a principle mechanism to achieve this and clean energy needs to replace fossil fuel as the global solution.

Panel One- digitalization, grid complexity and integrating renewables

The 1st panel on Digitalization, Grid Complexity, and integrating Renewables highlighted the sheer differences. From the grasp of the challenges and issues by both HE Hala Zawati, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan to the planning and development of solutions from Beatrix Natter, the Executive Vice President, Transmissions at Siemens. The counterbalancing that went on here gave the other panelists the platform to demonstrate, illustrate, or clarify their practical issues and needs to drive their business needs.

Where to start and how to summarize the expertise within this panel is hard. I learned a lot, I gained a lot and appreciated all the dep experiences gained from the ‘hands-on’ grappling with the complexities and challenges each grid and infrastructure entity is currently grappling with.

The capacity of grids, the stability, how to integrate solutions, and the increasing new dynamics of the final consumer adding energy they are generating back into the grid. As the Minister of Jordan stated Jordan has 20, 000 consumer/producers, and they are presently not seeing them on their grid and this variable influx of energy input throws the balancing of the grid in knowing their demands or supply.

The integrating of all the viable energy of renewables and where the energy is coming from is becoming increasingly a problem to manage.

The appeal and growing recognition was that we need as managing these assets to bring digital solutions for all the grid or infrastructure to dynamically manage it and understand its volatility in real-time

The energy infrastructure in many countries is aging (badly) and with all the renewable or alternative energy sources available, the ‘toggling’ of keeping energy supply consistent and reliable but to begin to upgrade, even layer on new capacity is a huge problem. This is a worldwide one, well-articulated by the Jordan and Saudi Arabian examples.

Jordan has a remarkable 20% of renewables in its system, in some ways it is having to slow down to allow infrastructure and its management to catch up and understand the new energy dynamics.

The consumer expectancies in energy are on the rise. Energy bills are expected to reduce, electricity is the consumer’s right to be reliable, safe, and stable for all their needs.

To achieve this no one solution alone works, the complete (re)design of grids and the infrastructure needs to be undertaken. What enters in energy fuels, how it gets transmitted, and how and where it is received. For this, you need smarter grids.

There came a point of having very innovative design criteria and entered into the discussion was digitalization. The so-called emerging “Internet of Energy”. This evolution stands alongside the IoT and IIoT in impact, change, and value and it is at a very low point of understanding or delivering.

Beatrix Natter outlined very succinctly some of the opening steps before we can see any platform for the Internet of Energy.

Firstly we have to digitalize the product, enable them to produce real-time data, her physical to digital step only currently being undertaken this gives the first chance to understand the operating conditions of the machine or connecting point.

Then the second step is to build the same digital capability into substations to understand the edge of grids.

Thirdly to make connections beyond two points to begin to turn this into a dynamic data system. It is then the automation of energy flows and intelligence becomes the value of these (essential) investments from the digital investments required.

There was some push back, not on the realization of the time and cost this will take but on the sheer scale of all the needs to upgrade for the grids to become more flexible, adaptable, and resilient. This includes upgrading, layering on new grid solutions, building in storage,  designing for even greater variability and capacity in electricity supply  

The bottom line of the discussion was this is huge to undertake in such a transformation of the grid transmission and infrastructure. The sheer scale and investment cost while the need is to deliver lower energy bills and reliable supply to the consumer.

The conclusions of the panel were “are we jumping too short in our present views?” Are our expectations and needs, adjusting to the new world of renewables ambitious enough? Do we measure Capex or even Opex in the right way? What happens with the growing legacy of fossil fuels that seemingly can’t deliver energy into the system as cheaply. Also, the ways to move from highly centralized large energy management systems to decentralized digitally. Lastly the need to enhanced the system, gain efficiency, and greater control that will offer intelligence and smartness to manage energy in radically different ways.

I could go on and on from the value of this panel. Another time and posts to come!

The second panel was on Hydrogen as the future energy source.

The panel took some time to find its flow in exchanges. Having Saudi Aramco in such an effective advocate as Ahmad Al Khowalter, the CTO was counterbalanced by the German contingent of the Director-General in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy alongside Prof. Armin Schnettler, the EVP New Energy Business for Siemens Energy.

The debate was partly centered on the present one of Blue vs Green hydrogen. What is economically feasible and at scale already, blue hydrogen versus the promise of green hydrogen yet to some at commercial scale.

The debate was partly “seeing is believing” and the commitments of Germany’s government in Green Hydrogen support have kick-started Siemens Energy to be more bullish on raising green hydrogen expectations. versus the abundance of cost-efficient oil from Saudi Aramco in particular.

Saudi Aramco has already in place significantly blue hydrogen facilities at some scale and already piloting a 4o tonne of high-grade blue ammonia shipment. This is a compound consisting of three parts hydrogen and one part nitrogen, marking a successful demonstration of the supply network from Saudi Arabia to Japan. The Saudi-Japan blue ammonia supply network demonstrated the conversion of hydrocarbons to hydrogen and then to ammonia, as well as the capture of the associated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions

The camps of Green coming from the solution coming from PEM Electrolysers, being pushed hard as needed to be contracted to be realized and supported by the German Government in grants and investment subsidies, and Blue, based on fossil fuel and proposed by Saudi Aramco as the one already in place and potentially easier to ramp up today, as it is at scale and significantly can be quickly used in advancing Power-to-X.

For me, the need to prove Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) as a proven commercially solution, viable from broad adoption, is the test of validation of Blue Hydrogens’ right to be at the lasting clean energy table in years to come.

Saudi Aramco can lead the way from the perspective of cleaning up fossil fuels completely, to turn them green as harmful emissions are our global issue. Make fossil fuels truly green should be their big challenge. The reward for green hydrogen in systems and fuel delivery is the twin challenges of Electrolyzers and CCUS to deliver. Green energy is the fuel of the future in its many possible final forms and that needs to become the new fuel/ energy standard.

I think there were not two sides, just healthy knowledgeable exchanges on who represented what (green vs blue) but the recognition to ensure Hydrogen does actually happen and become the new energy fuel to replace fossil fuels both need to be in the equation. No one disagreed on this, the discussion was time for scaling and delivering clean hydrogen has to happen today.

There is a need for both blue and green but it is the positioning of which is the one to lead or lag?

A final aspect of this panel was the contributions of Badr Al-Olama, Executive Director Aerospace for Mubadla Investment Company. He delivered constantly the 30,000-foot perspectives among them with a reminder that the Millenials are impatient and that gave the combined voice of all panelists of their shared commitment of “let’s do it” He was striving to keep focusing on the bigger picture in his contributions, which I personally liked.

The final session was the fireside chat with the CEO of Siemens Energy.

We are in the throws of a decarbonizing world, the transformation agenda is specific by country or energy issue. The boundary conditions need changing to accelerate the environment to be climate aware and regulated.

Siemens positioning is presently more of the broad diverse provider of a wide range of energy solutions, they are committed to driving their part of the energy change needed. They are pitching themselves as the interim solution provider to allow the future to take further shape before their portfolio will be further calibrated

The need is for traded value immediately (I liked that) built on solid business use cases with the energy transition requiring market-driven mechanisms in policy and regulatory change. The view of the CEO also stressed the need for the (financial) market to drive change and deliver the funding for the decarbonized world we are all expecting and requiring.

My conclusions on the three days

Such a lot to process and synthesis, all gained in my the ability to be virtually connected. Having not to travel was a huge benefit for me.

Siemens put together a well thought through range of panelists around the three big topics of Transformation, Innovation, and Sustainability in manageable, bite-sized chunks of the Energy Transition.

From my side, just a big thank you to #SiemensEnergyME for hosting this. It is planned as a yearly feature, I can eagerly await from the quality of each of these sessions to knowing this is time well spent.

Thanks, Siemens Energy.

The post Complexity, Debate and Many Starting Points in the Energy Transition first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

Image source and rights: Siemens Energy

So I have just finished up my second day at the Siemens Energy Middle East & Africa #EnergyWeek. A completely different day that took the second theme of innovation into a deeper dive around tackling the decarbonization of the hydrocarbon industry, followed by digitalizing the energy industry and a final panel about preparing societies for energy evolution

It was a mixed bag for me. Innovation is my core topic, and energy is my major focus area to apply innovation to, so this was a day of expectations and insights. I am sorry it is a little longer than I would have liked but here you go:

I heard that “innovation is in our DNA”, and no doubt it is, but one should always ask what type of innovation. Research related, technology-specific, or market-orientated. There are so many facets of innovation. I believe you need to be a little careful of making claims when the subject is so broad.

Panel one- decarbonizing the hydrocarbon industry

The panel did its job for me, in prompting many questions

The first panel discussed the hydrocarbon industry with a very specific focus on the oil and gas section, naturally as this is the Middle East. My impression is that recent shocks and the Corvid.19 crisis have certainly hit the Middle East especially hard. The panel finds its “collective feet” to respond and react and move from some tough days of retrenching in supply, ambitions and adjusting to a different flow of finances. It has, in many ways, seen the “writing on the wall” for some time with the charge of renewables and the different geographical markets shifting from the reliance on oil and gas.

I felt innovation should have been so much more “front and center” in the panel discussion. The reverting to extracting more efficiencies from an existing plant, continuing to tackle long-term problems of methane emissions, leakage, and flaring was present as issues but not foremost in mind to lead to significant initiatives in carbon capture and storage. The conclusion is CCUS is a promise, not proven to scale so we simply carry on. I believe the approach to make this CCUS is central to the Oil & Gas future in the Middle East as essential to invest in, in massive ways, and fully master.

Secondly, Gas is deemed by many as the bridge solution while the world continues to move to renewables or replace hydrocarbons with green molecules from Hydrogen. This “interim” solution is for twenty to thirty years or even more and in this time by making innovation central to solving CCUS in scale and commercial value is a challenge I would have thought the Middle East was wanting to significantly invest in this to achieve a leadership position. Perhaps it is working on this but it did not come across to me. I felt the Middle East is waiting for others to crack this CCUS in scale and commercial viability. What a lost innovating opportunity

There were many discussions on extending existing assets, and many of these seemed old assets, eeking out beyond their normal lifecycles. Is this the best route to go? We can attempt to make an old plant efficient, but why can’t new plants take their place? Designed with twenty to thirty years of use, the absolute state of the art. Make them climate-friendly in every way and taking innovative designs to make that happen. Adding oil or gas into a mixed environment with solar or wind and hydrogen to produce new green fuels needs accelerating. It is happening (project in Saudi Arabia), but it needs to be far more radical. More hybrid systems being commissioned.

Are oil and gas the enemy from a public perspective? That was raised on the panel, or as stated, is this actually emissions as our No 1 enemy? I thought that was a good point.

There was lots of talk about the coal to gas switch, and the growing coal growth still going in Asia. That is a growing concern I assume in the Middle East that it will be renewables that replace coal, not oil and gas and the markets continue to decline as Europe has signaled very specifically renewables is its future

There were discussions on the need to decarbonize brown assets, retrofits, waiting for a fair market where subsidies get removed (fair to whom as Oil and Gas have had a fair run on these in past years) Some floating of a World Carbon Bank was mentioned but will that ever transpire, the same as the carbon tax debate. They need global consensus and that is going to be hard.

I wish the panel had lifted itself out of its current position, it was a little depressing as this was the innovation focus day.

Oil and especially gas have a future for some time to come. If the Middle East players do not make some bold, innovative moves then they have lost the chance to be vibrant contributors to the energy transition, they will continue to move away, dilute and diversify and attempt to adjust to the new energy world but in diminished ways of shaping the energy future.

Do not get me wrong, I want a clean energy world but I simply felt the air of this panel as it debated was sometimes in the discussions a self-defeating, defensive mood. It seemed they were simply stuck on leveraging on the existing and extending all assets for maximum extraction. This approach may work for a shareholder short term but not competing in a very competitive world, where renewables are dominating at present. The Middle East needs to be collectively bolder.

Surely having a responsible oil and gas business that is determined to decarbonize fully, to provide fuels of the future that blend and mix the abundant resources that are available is the better way to go.

Oil and Gas need different perspectives, what I heard here was not taking that challenge on but hanging in as long as they can while adjusting to the WHOLE world moving away from Oil and Gas dependence. Increasingly we are seeing countries establishing their own renewables sources locally for growing energy independence. The reality and present mood seem acceptance of the fact that Oil and Gas are declining or is it still a little too early to tell as the world still depends on Oil & Gas for most essential industrial purposes?

I wanted to hear a very different innovation panel discussion not attempting to keep business as usual when it plainly cannot, but a collection of views for were Oil and Gas will be in 10 to 20 years and what will have changed in its current forms, from the Middle East perspective.

The second panel was Digitalizing the energy industry

The second panel was about “Digitalizing the energy industry”. The panel felt like it was a “probe and explore.” It got down into implementations and individual constraints and barriers. It did not lift up to where innovation can transform the energy industry.

In what I have read in my research and heard from others the Energy industry has been very slow to adopt digital. Digital has been around at Grid Controller, Fleet Director, or Power Plant Controller levels but not moving to the transformational level of managing the whole Energy System, that we are witnessing in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 where platforms, applications, and enormous resources are being poured into solutions.

There seems a lack of industry momentum to this, it is islands of initiatives. The people involved on the panel are at the evangelizing or spreading the digital world, working on building insider understanding, using the traditional user case approaches, slowing getting acceptance of the (valuable) part digital will play. Continuing in this “piece-meal” approach is the road to nowhere of any really different value potential.

They are seemingly are in trench warfare and that is understandable.

The value to the operations, the financial contributions are case-by-case, they reply on personal commitment and opportunity spotting. The journey to single sources of truth (data) is being broken down to allow islands of information to be changed into knowledgeable aspects that can add business value.

The analytical and predictive parts are well on their way but as there are limited platforms that “lift” industry standards, much of the data stays within the one company, not achieving that open value you can achieve in industry comparison.

The workforce perhaps within the Oil and Gas industry has been so physically orientated the shift to digital is seen as strange and alien.

What I did hear was an emerging pathway that will allow the digitalization of energy to take off and gain from scaling.

This was, in my words and interpretation, what I heard were thoughts on the beginning of a digital pathway:

1. Key is partnerships, sharing, exchanging, and bringing different skill sets to the same table

2. To get the current pilot phasing (pilot purgatory) shifting. Partly improper selection of projects, unclear end value, and lack of commitment beyond experiment and learning are holding the move to scale and commercialization

3. The energy transformation competitiveness is at a point where market volumes are declining, competitive edges are being sought. Can digital be a value enabler to make a difference? Operating in islands never brings the value that open data sharing can. It galvanizes real change

4. Scaling and deployment. The hard work on working on finding and justifying solutions based on digital applications can only go so far. The need is for a stack of (applicable) technologies and robust, dynamic, evolving platforms that oil and gas producers can tap into.

5 A real need for trust with the end-user so they begin to see how digital can augment their knowledge.

There was some mention of a digital twin idea and some work already taking place but it is not at any scale or appreciation on the same level as where the value of the Industrial Digital Twin has advanced through all its relevant parts. This prediction or innovative need was skipped over

I was expecting discussions on far more on Complex engineering tasks that can be mapped in detail through virtual simulation. How Artificial intelligence plays a key role in data management and domain expertise of Siemens AG to go beyond creating a virtual 3D model of an asset, where solutions in the future will be able to quickly incorporate all structural, electrical, mechanical, control, and instrumentation data efficiently.

Bringing sophisticated solutions is what I felt the panel was looking for, to take their initiatives onto a different level. A level that relies on the close collaboration between solution providers with the expertise in analytics, modeling, cloud computing, and AI, and operators who have in place systems so they can open up their assets to the data-gathering systems that are required for the necessary detail this digitalization world needs to bring new business value and operating models.

Clearly one day, the industry will exist in both the physical and virtual worlds, it is beginning, with the feedback boosting production, asset life, efficiency, capturing emission and energy loss points and, crucially build on safety.

I was expecting to hear more solutions about digital solutions as this was a Siemens based event but that may be a business yet to fully come from them also. It seems Siemens Energy is only beginning to focus in on this.

The final panel around “preparing societies for the energy revolution” was my highlight of the day.

The final panel was about preparing societies for energy evolutions. The panel identified the need for new skills for this new energy world. Siemens spoke about their adoption of “to Energise Society” but these are, again it seems early days.

The awareness and education of society to the energy changes will be felt nowhere more dramatically than in the Middle East. To move away from subsidies for society, low oil and gas prices, and adjust to different consumption challenges will be a challenge.

I did like the approaches that are being undertaken in both Saudi Arabia and to a more advanced level in the UAE. The notion of how we live and think, how we adapt, the understanding of diversification, and what it promises in new work and skills is a tough one to transition.

The panel talked through different initiatives. They spoke about embracing innovation, having a more agile revolution, gaining increased identification, and separation from reliance just on technology but on individual skills.

The UAE Minister, Her Excellency Minister of State for International Development, Reem Al Hashimy laid out some very clear enablers to take society through the changes occurring, not just in energy but across much of the changing world that is ahead. She spoke of Advocacy Platforms, developing localized thought leadership, providing memorable experiences to modify experiences, and inspire change as enablers.

Each panel members offer up different interesting points of view from Dr. Raja Al Gurg, Dana Al Juffall, Gina Verghi-Breuer, and HE Reem Al Hashimy, nicely moderated by Dr. Dalla Samra-Rohte gave me the best session of the day.

HE Reem Al Hashimy provided me the most memorable point “Agility and Adaptability” and that perhaps sums up the three panels and the struggles, stages they are all in, within the energy transition.

The energy transition in the Middle East, so heavily dependent on the Oil & Gas industry is yet to find its sustaining innovation ways. It has many but they need a greater catalyst and imperative to bring a lasting change. The UAE clearly shows the way but to make dramatic changes innovation needs dramatically lifting up in thinking through.

Innovation needs to be more radical and applied, less talked around, or applied in isolated islands. The Middle East from hearing from all involved does have the capability, providing it refocused in its own transformation on what it can offer the rest of the world and its own societies.

The post Agility and Adaptability in any Energy Transition first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.