I have been asking myself how a combined effect of innovation and ecosystem design thinking will support the energy transition we are undertaking to give it additional traction and generation.

In a recent report released by IEA in the last week or so, “Tracking clean energy innovation in the business sector: an overview.” they emphasised the point that “Acceleration of clean energy innovation, supported by effective innovation policies, is critical for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and the technology development in the business sector will be to success“.

I draw from this report this initial perspective: “The major drawbacks are we are simply NOT recognizing the need to have a clear and consistent way of approaching and capturing innovation at the front end of discovery or exploration. The inconsistency of not having clarity of how innovation is undertaken and then reported uniformly is continuing to hold up upfront investment, institutional capacity building and consistent classification of technologies”.

The IEA estimates that companies active in energy technologies spent almost USD 120 billion on energy R&D in 2021, three times more than governments. They remark, “Beyond these headline estimates, however, information on the energy innovation activities of firms – whether freely or commercially available; at technology level or highly aggregated – is frustratingly scarce.”

We need to recognize the importance of innovation, not just on what it can bring in through future solutions but on its need to have a recognized, established process to capture, evaluate and openly report on any innovation project’s progress.

The vital “infusion” of innovation in thinking, approaching and building this into the front end of any energy transition provides a more significant discovery structure and process that can significantly facilitate the changes with more informed knowledge, insights and validation of a path to travel.

We need to build an energy innovation ecosystem that shares, collaborates and openly exchanges the discovery to validate what a specific innovation solution provides so that others can gain insights and knowledge.

We must accelerate knowledge by sharing and openly exchanging. That requires at least one or a series of technology platforms that allows for the coalescing and collaborating around “future” energy innovation.

Without established methodologies consistently applied to energy, there are opportunities to do so; we require a recognized standard innovation process across the energy sector. One that supports collaboration, networks and knowledge sharing. If “we” are not informed or can judge “success” how can we scale out, form broader policy or build a funding mechanism that accelerates the energy transition?

Today we lack promising answers and key uncertainties facing investors and policymakers in areas including hydrogen, smart grids, energy efficiency, electrification and many more, as concepts developed are not seen, judged or evaluated in a defined, established way. Can we afford not to get organized?

We do need to recognize the front end of energy from an innovation perspective a lot more.

Finding fresh ideas and momentum

The energy transition needs a broad array of thinking; specialists, generalists, enthusiasts and passionate people that can move beyond their own view offering a “non-ideological confrontation” where solutions are both sustainable and accelerate a path to decarbonization and net zero without any legacy or vested interest effect.

This innovator capacity needs to be ‘enforced’ and requires more significant insights and understanding of the alternatives, options, issues, and challenges.

There is a substantial role for me to play, I feel, in advising on innovation for decades.

This is why my multiplier approach offers one framework to help work this complexity through the energy transition in a supportive, systematic way; the combination gives momentum, traction and fresh energy.

For me, applying the “multiplier effect” to any discovery and validation accelerates the understanding of where the potential growth and impact points of a new business opportunity can occur.

My positioning is at the front end of the Energy Transition, building insights through the “eyes” of the strategic innovator.

I see the front end of energy as the critical feeding-in point for the energy transition. So what does this mean exactly?

• I provide evaluations and assessments of the front end of a transformation in discovery and validation that build understanding and fresh thinking.
• I bring “order” to the innovation process and seek to share and enhance a broader understanding of what is being achieved for others to gain equally.
• The combination of innovation within ecosystem thinking and the design approach supports the acceleration of the energy transition.
• Known “outputs” and “outcomes” of innovation can and will bring faster adoption and the spread of new or improved technologies in specific fields that can contribute to the acceleration of the energy transition.
• The combination capitalizes on the value points of data assets combined with knowledge insights and business-building experience. It can offer a different multiplier effect to idea generation and momentum building.

While few established innovation methodologies have been consistently applied to energy, there are opportunities to do so. Existing methods can potentially be adapted to track the specificities of clean energy technology innovation by the business sector in ways that answer key uncertainties facing policymakers in areas including hydrogen, smart grids, energy efficiency, electrification and many more.

Offering a given value in the proposition

I want to advance further what organizations or individuals responsible for leading the energy transition require to support and develop a more significant innovation and transformation understanding of energy transition options. To support them and build new competencies, clients achieve positive and sustaining results from these activities around the energy transition they intend to undertake.

The insights delivered aim to offer a unique view leading to a more balanced perspective, fresh inspiration and real alternatives to investigate and explore energy transitions and then to share what they have gained in insights, knowledge and value.

Explore Innovating the Energy Transition that begins to bring innovation to the fore in its need to be seen as distinctive as a structural approach to manage the energy transition in the future in a highly collaborative, networked way.

Building a better discovery and validation portfolio

To build this better discovery and validation, you need to think differently than we do today.

We need to think about ecosystems in design and thinking ways.

We must build technology platforms to communicate, exchange and share in collaborative energy ventures to manage this energy transition on a global basis.

Extracting knowledge and applying application and practice gives clients the beginning of the “discovery and validation phase”, accelerating the client’s growth options in more structured ways, what is evolving and what impact and growth opportunities are on a business by taking the innovator’s perspective into assessing the need for a client’s energy transition.

By drawing on the external perspective, there is a significant saving in the amount of time in early resource investment. These insights and recommendations provide the triggering points for seeing fresh growth opportunities.

Does that make sense? It does to me, but maybe I am a little biased here! Let me know your thoughts, please.

The post Building momentum, gaining idea generation into energy insights first appeared on Innovating the Energy Transition.

“Today we are witnessing the degradation of this one vital ecosystem we are all utterly dependent upon, our planet“

This energy transition is genuinely an ecosystem of epic proportions.

The energy (eco) system is not impacting many; it is affecting us all. We are all impacted. We do need to recognize that the energy transition, as its end product, electricity, is what we all have become highly dependent upon. Electricity is powering and linking into each of our economies, into our societies. Yet we are facing a stark choice for our earth.

Should we allow energy to continue on its current system, reliant on fossil fuels, old, inadequate energy systems, and infrastructure solutions? Or do we finally recognize, power solutions need to change radically into sources of energy, based more on renewables, that provide cleaner, more naturally sustaining environments based on wind, the sun, and natural conversion of water or the increased use of biomass?

Of course, there is today a very popular “soundbite” of “we want to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.”  Yet to achieve this does mean we face one of the biggest challenges we will face up to in this century, or perhaps when you to look back, within any century.  This energy transition is as big as it can get. The prize is a return to a planet we can live upon in healthy ways, not one of “affordable energy.”

Ecosystems can evolve naturally, given time, but we presently do not have the luxury of allowing one to develop we much (attempt) to manage this energy transition ecosystem as quickly as possible, it is becoming essential

The entrenched fossil reliant energy system must migrate towards the clean energy future we urgently require, to allow for our planet to return to a balanced one. If we as humans want to lead healthy lives, we do need this balance this with what this earth offers, to live alongside other creatures, plants, and in what nature provides, and value this completely different. It is not simply trying to extract or be the ultimate judge over parts of the ultimate ecosystem, we need to stop imposing just our needs.

Managing the energy transition is vital to that as it may be essential to our world, but its present byproduct is polluting or poisoning our planet’s environment with significant carbon emissions.

We need to provide a more sustainable future for all living things on this one planet of ours in the use of clean energy that does not burden or have an impact on our “living” system.

Here on this posting site, I describe the journey we all need to travel, you will see a growing set of views that I hope will “inform” you, inspire you or simply add to your knowledge. Welcome

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