I need to remind myself that my objective is to focus on different aspects of innovation needs within the energy transition. It should be simple for me, but it certainly is not!
The sheer scope of the energy transition often pulls me away in so many different directions from my innovation focal point. Equally, it can force me as a necessity to understand a significant amount of advice, detail and opinion, so I can far more appreciate where innovation has an even more significant potential to contribute.
I keep constantly investing my time in growing my further understanding, expertise, and thinking of energy transition ‘cross-over points’ where we move away from the old energy systems into the new ones.
This knowledge understanding provides some distinctive and inter-related “core” topics, which are admittedly time-consuming but essential based on the in-depth research undertaken.
What I look for is where innovation has a more catalytic effect as these might become ‘flash points’ of future challenges that need a new level of creative or innovative thinking.
The whole Energy Transition has been a growing platform to apply my innovation learning and ecosystem thinking. There are so many inter-related topics, and you have to make choices?
I have decided to narrow these inter-related topics to focus on critical areas that impact any successful energy transition.
The topics I will focus on are shown below. I have also provided links to some of my previous thoughts or views to build out these focal topics.
The critical focal points I have chosen to concentrate upon.
-Firstly on rare minerals and the impact the extraction and use these have within any future solutions requires a radically different approach to the extraction, use, disposal and will have so many fluctuating issues in the years to come,
-Secondly, the growing importance of the (smart) edge for a greater distributed energy architecture.
-Thirdly, the hydrogen story is taking off. Electrolyzers are a place for invention, research, and increased development are coming together for solutions that have more significant scaling potential and innovation.
-You have the whole topic of power generation. The shifts, structures and positioning are ripe for innovating at individual levels to resolve legacy and location and energy sources, and the solution “fits”—Nuclear, wind, solar and hydropower.
– The recognition and investment need for wholesale change in Grids and the growing value of microgrids where the adaptability and flexibility and the emphasis on robustness and resilience grow in importance.
-Storage and batteries have such an important role to play in any new energy system design. They deliver the “response” rate and much of the stabilities we require in any newly designed system.
-No one can avoid decarbonization as a topic to understand and see the need for greater carbon capture and natural solutions. My post “Themes for decarbonizing, my agenda setting post“ offers my thoughts here.
-Lastly, within this current focus area, it is necessary to keep relating to all the complexities of the climate crisis. These ongoing crises will accelerate and progressively alter so much of the energy transition, the timing of investment, and increasing understanding of impact and risk assessments.
Hard choices for all involved.
Choices are needed everywhere in the difficulties of what to invest in and when. These include facing up to the decisions required regarding when to dispose of assets and how to treat these within the P&L, especially in the growing area of stranded assets—recognizing the necessary shifts in structures and the challenges within current business models.
Also, understanding the why with the ‘evolving state and risk’ of the options needed and what options are available to deploy within this deteriorating environment is fraught with issues and business impact.
We are faced with increasing volatile times over the coming decades before any reliable stability returns. The growing recognition and urgency need multiple ‘voices’ and contributions to help those in decision-making roles to gain more significant insights and awareness of the implications.
Implications need to have a more informed, independent understanding. Then, decision-makers can execute their decisions with growing knowledge, in more effective and efficient ways.
Often, it is not recognized that innovation, in the age of disruption and radical change, equips the organization and person far better than often realized.
Each of these focus areas above is massive in its own right.
Simply each of these topic areas has the absolute need for innovation. My other focus area of ecosystem design is to create value, deliver impact and find improved ways to collaborate and learn and gain from increasing collaborations, knowledge and application.
It is finding impactful ways, as they all become interconnected for any business to advance on their journey of understanding delivering sustainable growth and new business potential.
Risk and opportunity are the two sides of the innovation coin.
My focus due to the innovation aspect naturally falls far more at the Front End Of the Energy Transition, at the discovery, development and validation stages, as this is where innovation emerges.
Today, I see and believe that there is a real gap in many organizations by not having the robust innovation capability, capacity, and competency needed, recognized, well-established and firmly in place.
The magnitude of change required means greater reliance on researchers, scientists, and engineers and their need to ramp up to a whole new performance level. The attention to innovation throughout all of our organizations needs to become a shared sense of purpose, involvement and commitment to contribute.
I have worked in innovation advisory work for over twenty years, advising and transforming the activities and awareness, to help fill those poor understanding gaps of lacking comprehensive approaches to capabilities, capacities and competencies in innovation and the tools to drive change throughout organizations. Innovation is rarely treated as core, and it should be as change emerges from the dynamic environment that promotes innovation.
A critical decision time for Energy requires a different and radical mind shift.
We are presently at a critical decision time; the level of investment needed to achieve this energy transition is massive. The current estimate to create a safe climate system is the need to invest USD 140 trillion of new investments in the energy sector by 2050.
Much of the investments need to be directed away from fossil fuels (the primary carbon emitters) into clean technologies. It is renewables, including most power generation and end-use applications, that need to invest primarily through new generation sources of wind, solar, hydrogen, and biofuels.
This level of investment commitment will radically alter the energy landscape, where Energy is generated, by what means, and how it will be distributed, stored and consumed by us all. I am working on energy fitness landscapes as a way to plot and execute around.
Presently we are not making the essential investments we need to make.
We are all becoming painfully aware that the period until 2030 is absolutely critical for investments not just to be pledged but effectively deployed on the ground in the physical solutions and effective operation needed to make this energy transition required on track to reach the climate goals.
Innovation is critical in this energy transition. I have a clear role to play.
We need to move from research and development through engineering validation into pilot and scaling solutions, at speed, requiring a different innovation approach from discovery to execution.
What is recognized increasingly is that we do not have the luxury of evaluating radical change over standard lifetime returns or observing others over the years, we need to be highly proactive in innovation from discovery to final execution at scale. There is the need to raise validation and take higher risks than in more stable times.
We need to be more pioneering. Without a coordinated and leadership direction, the efforts and the risk will always remain cautious without guarantee or point of crisis. Scientists, engineers and researchers are, by nature, often conservative. There is a need for leadership to instil the imperative to reevaluate risk, seek out opportunities at high speed, and push for discovery and experiment constantly.
We also need to encourage this different mind shift of acceptable risk. Having an innovation mindset helps.
So for me, the energy transition is at the forefront of “cutting edge” innovation to deliver; this is why I have been increasing my attention to understanding, investigation, research, and become more immersed in the changes and challenges, issues, and barriers.
I need to emphasize my positioning and what I offer in innovation system design and building knowledge and expertise. To support and help deliver innovative solutions, I suggest my multipliers for innovation at the front end of the energy transition.
The ability to help discover, see and effectively manage the change in solutions and recognize and build out the business case for building a more robust and sustaining innovation system is critical for the future energy transitions we need to find and then put into place.
As I said in the opening to this post: I need to remind myself that my (sole) objective is to exclusively focus on different aspects of innovation” to help in this energy transition.
I need you as the vehicle and mechanism to deliver! I deliver innovation understanding and capability as the business promise return.
