FountainBlue’s May 13 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions’, with opening remarks by GE Digital Grid. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.
Our executives in attendance exclaimed many times about the major shift in focus toward carbon-neutral energy solutions over the past decade. No longer do we need to make the business/social/ sustainability/practical business case about WHY we must adopt more carbon-neutral solutions.
Our executives agree that the focus will now be on WHICH options we adopt (try them all), WHAT we do collaboratively (everything) and HOW we can work better together to drive leadership and innovation to better adopt more technologies and solutions for each of us today, and for the future. Our executives are bullish about the market and technology opportunities over the next decade for carbon-neutral energy solutions. They agree that it will not be easy to implement and realize these solutions because they:
- must leverage hardware and software designed to manage energy generation, storage, distribution, and usage.
- must support the reliability, sustainability, safety, sustainability, security, policy, affordability, demand goals from a wide range of customers.
- must collect and manage, filter and process huge volumes of data real-time in order to provide meaningful dashboards of information to stakeholders so that decisions can be made, actions can be taken.
- must manage the integration of both traditional and renewable energy into a common grid, ensuring that customers only receive usable energy sources.
- must work with utilities and their customers, using the infrastructure around the electrical grid, and selectively integrating devices on the edge.
Below are some thoughts on opportunities and innovations for carbon-neutral energy solutions:
- Leverage digital twin technology may help utilities and organizations plan for energy management and distribution scenarios.
- Gather data from the edge can better inform energy usage and generation patterns real-time and also make projections for future energy usage.
- Connecting a network of disparate renewal energy generation sources so we can help better manage the energy in the grid.
- Providing temporary power solutions to customers with utility/infrastructure challenges may be necessary if customers adopt solutions before the infrastructure/utilities are ready.
- Consider last-minute drone and robot solutions for providing more carbon-neutral solutions for the delivery of goods.
Below are thoughts on how we can drive innovation in this space.
- Invite the participation of a wide breadth of scientists and technicians to collaborate on designing and implementing carbon-neutral energy solutions – from chemical engineers to data scientists, from physicists to pharmacists, from geologists to rocket engineers.
- Technology will play a major role in creating, designing, planning, and delivering a carbon-neutral future.
- Create demand from the ground up, and visioning and execution from the top-down so we can drive more momentum for a carbon-neutral future.
- Be consistently vocal to policy-makers and influencers, and insist that they rise above the politics and support the carbon-neutral solutions which serve us all today and in the future.
In closing, we agreed that there is no silver bullet, but we brainstormed what each of us today today to embrace and support carbon-neutral energy solutions:
- Start now, and do something little and big every day.
- Educate yourself on practical carbon-neutral solutions and integrate them into your day-to-day work and life.
- Adopt electric vehicles which offer better torque/acceleration/power at lower cost.
- Choose a role/job/activity/vision which would support a carbon-neutral future.
- Push for policy and legislative changes using your influence in ways big and small.
- Push the boundaries on what’s possible.
- Support your local utilities and policy-makers in upgrading and updating the infrastructure which will take us from here to there.
- Be open-minded about the technology and market opportunities for carbon-neutral solutions.
- Collaborate with others to make commitments and sacrifices for the greater good.
It is conversations like this that give me hope for a better world – one that leverages innovation and leadership for the greater good. Please join me again in thanking our participating executives and the larger FountainBlue community for their insights and participation.
Tags: sustainability
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