Energy & Natural Resources

The landscape of power grid and energy distribution is undergoing a remarkable transformation fueled by the advancements in electrical power systems. The major trend in the power grid and distribution sector is the move towards decentralization. Decentralization involves the distribution of power generation across multiple smaller sources, rather than relying on a few large power plants. Decentralization is being driven by factors such as the declining cost of renewable energy technologies, increased energy efficiency, and the desire for greater energy independence and resilience. The developments in microgrid technology is pivotal to the overall decentralization and decarbonization effort. It will serve as a decentralized energy system, where you are independent of the public network and, at the same time, can generate additional revenue by feeding any excess energy back to it. Peer to Peer energy tranding is an emerging trend which allows management of increasing numbers of Distributed Energy Resources in microgrids or local energy systems. Industry is also undergoing a digital transformation through the adoption of smart grid technologies. Smart grids use digital technologies such as sensors, analytics, and automation to monitor and control the flow of energy more efficiently and accurately. Businesses are exploring use of blockchain technologies to enable peer to peer trading and grid management.

Bioenergy will play a key role in clearing the haze around the future of renewable energy. It is an emerging market that is bidding goodbye to its conventional ways and swiftly adopting novel energy sources like Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), biofuel cells, 2G biofuels, bioelectric syngas, etc. Companies planning to gain an edge in this market must crack the high production and technology costs barrier. Also, it is a highly unorganized market that lacks any regulatory monitoring, players’ hierarchy, or perennial revenue streams. Aspiring players must cross these conundrums to land on the greener side. We are here to lend a helping hand to help you unlock the true potential of this segment of the sustainable energy game.

Renewable energy is experiencing repid growth on a global scale because of new power generation capacity additions based on solar and wind power and increasing investment in renewable power generation. The major driving factors for the renwable energy climate change concenrs, energy security, failing costs, Government supoort and corporate sustainability. Solar energy accounts for majority of renewable power generation owing to falling cost and residential and commercial installations. Efforts are being targeted towards improving overall efficiency of solar energy through development of Tandem Solar cells. It is also observed that there has been increase in the utility scale solar projects. Wind energy perticularly offshore wind energy is becoming an increasing important power source as it has potential to generate large amount of electricity with fewer land restrictions. Businesses are exploring data analytics and advanced digital technologies such as digital twin for optimizing the performance of wind turbine. Community owned projects are becoming more common. Though geothermal accounts for small share of new capacity additions, business are exploring advances in drilling technology to make it easier and exploring applications that goes beyond electricity generation. Nuclear energy is also being viewed by some as a potential solution to the climate change crisis, as it is a low carbon source of electricity. Businesses are exploring advanced nuclear technologies such as small modular recotrs, Generation type IV reactors and waste managment technologies. Developments in renewable energy and alternate energy sources is driving shift towards use of hydrogen as energy soruce. Business are putting efforts to reduce cost of green hydrogen and scaling up the production with help of goverment support and technological advances like AEM electrolysis, etc.

The energy storage industry is experiencing significant growth and innovation in various sub-sectors. The key trends in this industry include the widespread adoption of Li-ion batteries due to their declining cost caused by continuous extensive R&D and recent inclination towards electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. The focus of innovation in battery technologies, such as solid-state and flow batteries is towards offering enhanced safety, longer lifespan, and providing higher energy densities. Additionally, the industry is witnessing advancements in Compressed air energy storage (CAES), Flywheel energy storage (FES), Pumped hydro storage (PHS), and Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES). CAES systems store compressed air in underground caverns, while FES system utilizes rotational energy. PHS harnesses the potential energy of water, and SMES employs superconducting coils. With their fast response times, high power capabilities, and efficient energy transfer these advancements hold promising prospects for the future. Further Al/ ML is expected to pave the way for sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective energy storage by optimizing the performances of energy storage solutions in terms of automation of energy supply based on demand, and predictive maintenance/ replacements of the systems leading to greater efficiency and cost savings.