The missing value of distinctive innovation needs greater appreciation in the Energy Transition

I think we miss something and it is a great big pity.

Distinctive innovation is actually not just the middle ground, the passing through point towards breakthrough or disruptive, but it is the inspirational point for all of us to rally around far more than we do.

 Pushing for that extra effort takes something good to something even better; it gives it a certain distinctiveness. Inspiration within the innovation process is essential; it is a great motivating point to achieve far more in our identity with something distinctive than just incremental. Whatever we work upon in innovation, we should seek something distinctive as an outcome.

I don’t regard the latest flavoured yoghurt or improvements to our computer processor power speed or a few more pixels on our I-phone as anything more than incremental. Good to have as they keep pushing our experiences and add more value, but this is incremental value. This is to keep pushing up the awareness curve to extract longer value from the brand or product. I’m looking at something that makes it stand out, to be distinctive.

Examples Solar or Wind Turbines

These were new technology, groundbreaking solutions. They have opened up the energy future for renewables as they use sustainable energy sources; they harness the sun for solar and the wind for turbines. The ability to scale these has been a significant pathway of learning. I deem this, once we are past the invention and initial innovation as the true breakthroughs, we went into really distinctive phases of advancement. We harnessed the power of technology, engineering and design understanding

Mobiles moving from a simple mobile to our smartphones

The amazing breakthrough of smartphones became constant distinctive advancements of design, technology and again engineering. To shrink the capabilities to do what a smartphone can provide has been stunning.

There are six innovation areas of electrification, hydrogen, biochemistry and synthetic chemistry, material efficiency and circularity, new materials, and carbon capture and carbon use that need to have innovative solutions. Working on the innovations within these six critical areas does have a real chance of fully decarbonizing these harder-to abate sectors of the world’s economy.

For me, the sector in the report (Chapter 8) that discusses the innovation agenda was the place I automatically went.  The two crucial slides from the Mission Impossible Report for innovation were highlighted in the chapter, discussing bring critical technologies to commercial-scale deployment, addressing engineering complexities, and driving down costs.

Exhibit 8.1 presents a summary of critical domains where incremental performance and cost improvement of existing technologies is essential to facilitate commercial-scale deployment. It provides a roadmap to explore identified innovation solutions.

from the Mission Impossible Report by the Energy Transmission Commission (page145)

Exhibit 8.2 presents a summary of key areas where innovations are further away from the market and require significant development, demonstration, and piloting over the next 15 years to bring them to market readiness by the 2030s or 2040s. Again, the innovative concepts are known; it is the validation and scaling-up that needs time.

from the Mission Impossible Report by the Energy Transmission Commission (page146)

The Energy Transmission Commission rightly points out we will be discovering other innovation alternatives in the years ahead.

The state: “Unforeseeable technological breakthroughs will significantly change the optimal pathway to decarbonization over the next fifty years.”

 The driver of the real change must come from a very forceful public policy set of decisions that reach net-zero carbon emissions from the harder-to-abate sectors non-negotiable.