800GW total installed wind capacity, which grew over 100 times in the past 24 years.
T he Journey to Electrification
As utopic as limitless renewable power might sound, the sought after electrified economy is fundamentally reliant upon the grid. Tristan Grimbert from EDF Renewables warns that “we have the GWS, but we cannot currently support development with the current grid infrastructure.” Mettler insists that “the grid is the infrastructure that underpins the whole transition[...]it has not received enough attention, both by investors and governments.” Peak Power’s CEO, Derek Lim Soo, is certain that AI controlled, or ‘smart grids’ “will be the catalyst to advancing the energy transition, but it will take time to realize a full modernization.”
Green energy sources still suffer from weather dependent intermittence, which, without curated management, can cause grid imbalances. If an efficient solution to the problem of storage is achieved, renewables will be in full capacity to deliver. Most battery storage capacity was installed in the last five years, adding up to 16 GW at grid-scale by 2022. Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s (BNEF) latest forecasts speak of a 20-fold increase in battery
DIEGO PAVIA CEO, EIT INNOENERGY It is not only about innovation, but about creating industrial traction too - only then are jobs created and a real transformation is achieved. 2050 is too far ahead - we can make huge improvements by 2025.
STEFAN OLANDER CEO, SOLTECH Sweden’s goal is to go from 1% to 10% by 2040 in solar energy development - nothing is brighter than the sun.
capacity by the end of this decade. An alternative and increasingly popular energy storage element is that of hydrogen. With nearly three times the content of gasoline, hydrogen can be stored through electrolysis, and then released by using the gas as fuel in an engine or fuel cell. As the lightest of all elements, it retains a low density at ambient temperature, requiring advanced storage methods.
Oil giants, such as Chevron, have an extensive history working with hydrogen and are tripling their investments by 2028 to develop new energy methods. Jeff B. Gustavsson, President of Chevron’s New Energy Division says: “Over an eight-year period, this represents $10 billion – $2 billion going to decarbonizing our traditional oil and gas business, and $8 billion to grow these new businesses.” Ashutosh Misra from Air Liquide adds that “hydrogen could account for 20% of the total energy demand of the world over the next 30 years, and will be one of the critical components of the decarbonized energy mix moving forward.” Exxonmobil is looking to build a carbon capture hub for their operations and the APAC region. “We have an upstream company that plays to our competitive advantage, because we have the subsurface data, understand the geology, and therefore have a deep understanding to identify the geological formations deep underground that can be suitable to safely store CO2,” said Geraldine Chin, Chairman and Managing Director, Exxonmobil Asia Pacific.
When it comes to electrification, Eaton’s CEO Craig Arnold says “the tip of the spear is what is happening in the automotive industry with manufacturing these systems at scale.” Ralf Pfitzner, Head of Sustainability for Volkswagen, believes the inflection point of EV development and production has already been met: “we anticipate that by 2030, EVS will account for roughly half of our total sales. In Europe, we are already at 70%.” Even more ambitious about market potential and customer demand for EVS is Sweden’s Volvo, where Head of Advanced Technology and Sustainability, Henrik Green says their “portfolio will be completely composed of EVS by 2030.”