🛢️⚡Intro
The year 2023 is fast approaching, which means it’s time to present my research on the business trends, innovations, and opportunities for the next fiscal year. This article will focus on the Energy Sector.
Both classic, utilites, and renewable energy markets will be discussed, including fission, fusion, solar, fossil fuel, wind, and hydropower. Additionally, we will explore advances in the traditional energy industry and innovation, such as biofuels among other novel technologies. We will also discuss market trends, and business prospects/opportunites.
My initial goal was to post all of the research for the 2023 business trends report in one post. I “hastily” concluded that would not be ideal. I then decided on 2 -3 sectors, per post, but finally concluded that 1 sector per post, primarily for SEO purposes, would be ideal.
By bifurcating the research into sector-based posts, I can more easily target keywords and produce more informative targeted content, with the goal of increasing organic site traffic. This approach will allow me to create a more diverse content offering that will cater to a wider target audience. After all, a content-driven website’s success should be measured by the quality of the content as the base case. Everything else is a secondary consideration.
So sit back, turn on that brain, and let’s get started!
Energy Industry ; Renewable Energy ; Fission; Fusion ; Electrification ; Mobility ;
Solar-power ; Wind-Turbine ; Oil-industry ; nuclear-energy ; Bio-fuel
📖 Table-Of-Contents
🛢️ Problem Statement
As technology accelerates faster than most even care to comprehend, society is in a state of flux. Increasingly, people are becoming aware of the importance of switching to renewable energy sources, and the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only reinforced this awareness. A combination of the conflict, rising oil demand and decreased supply, inflation volatility, and the still looming global impact of COVID-19 has caused prices to skyrocket, putting more strain on an already fragile global economy.
As a result of recent volatility in oil prices, OPEC recently discussed production quotas. As a result of the meeting, production quotas are likely to increase, which is a positive development for oil-producing countries, as they will receive more revenue and boost GDP as a consequence. Moreover, it will create a greater degree of perfunctory and complexity in non-oil-producing countries, resulting in an increase in inflation and an increase in supply-side shocks, as a colder-than-usual winter causes high energy consumption levels in North America, Europe, and across the northern hemisphere.
📈 2023 Energy Sector Market Research
As a measure of the overall health of the market, the renewable energy sector has seen an increase in investments and capital allocations, with investments more than doubling in the last five years. In 2025, the market is expected to reach $881 billion, up nearly 50% from 2020.
In 2022, the United States will invest $231 billion, up 34% from 2020. Renewable energy markets are expected to reach $12 trillion USD by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of about 12%.
Renewable energy makes up only 5% of the world’s electricity as of 2022, highlighting the potential for continued growth for the industry, as well as the value of investments based on the current market penetration rate of just 5%.
In response to the massive influx of capital and investment, the demand for renewable energy sources has increased, resulting in an increase in businesses and startups. Furthermore, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, have become considerably more affordable in recent years, making them a more attractive option for businesses and consumers.
🌄 US Energy market breakdown - Coal, natural gas, and petroleum accounted for 79% of the U.S. primary energy consumption/production in 2021:
👩🔬 2023 Energy Sector Innovations
In terms of energy, the major innovations of 2023 are expected to focus on the development of renewable energy sources, with optimizations somewhat consistent across the industry, resulting in a reduction in energy costs, improved unit economics, lower average prices per unit, etc.
Improved solar cell technology that is both cheaper and can capture more energy from the fusion reactor in the sky, improved wind turbine technology that is cost-effective and maintainable, and new hydropower systems and infrastructure. As countries transition to more sustainable energy sources and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, each will be used more widely.
Furthermore, new technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells and advanced batteries for battery storage are expected to become more popular as they become more cost-effective and reliable. In addition, smart grid systems that use (AI) artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) to optimize energy distribution and usage will see widespread adoption by both state and federal governments.
Geothermal energy production will also be a major growth area in the energy sector in 2023, both for commercial and residential purposes. It is expected that geothermal energy production will become more popular as new developments, as well as innovative approaches to introducing geothermal installations for existing developments, are introduced. In 2023, geothermal well drilling practices are expected to undergo significant improvements, all of which will be connected through smart grid systems and technologies to optimize consumption and usage.
Over the past few years, horizontal drilling, measurement-while-drilling, and improved modeling have improved oil production efficiency, safety, and yield. Fossil fuels will remain a major component of global energy consumption, so it is worth mentioning in this section.
There are numerous opportunities for business growth in this space. Now let’s review renewable energy in more detail to better understand some of the areas of opportunity for both businesses with an existing renewable energy product or service, as well as for businesses that have yet to enter this space.
🍃 2023 Renewable Energy & Carbon Neutral Innovations
🏭 2023 Fission & Fusion Innovation
The energy industry is witnessing some encouraging advances, particularly in the areas of both fission and fusion – Fusion is the process of joining two or more atomic nuclei to form a bigger nucleus, while fission is the splitting of an atom’s nucleus into two or more parts. Nuclear energy has been developed and scaled by many countries worldwide since the first reactors were constructed in the United States in the 1940s, (nuclear electric accounts for roughly 9.6% of total energy production/consumption in the US).
As industry and governments strive to produce zero-emission and low-emission energy, both fusion and fission research have made significant progress in recent years. Nuclear energy is being generated using new procedures that are safe and cost-effective, which we’ll examine more toward the end of this section, and based on recent advancements in fission, many believe we’ll have a working fusion reactor by 2030.
As of 2022-12 , the National Ignition Facility (NIF) project has achieved ignition, making significant progress in nuclear fusion technology. NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) is responsible for funding the facility. It uses superconducting lasers to combine and fuse isotopes in a small target to create energy. NIFS is a promising method for producing pollution-free and zero-emission energy.
It has opened up the possibility of using fusion as a clean, safe, and reliable source of energy. However, many challenges remain before fusion can be used on a large scale. DOE’s recent efforts toward the development of fusion energy will also be discussed in a webinar organized by the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, which will be held on Feb 16, 2023 1:00PM - 2:00PM ET. The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR), was created in 1984 and provides a unique forum for dialogue among top government, university, and industry leaders to discuss and promote the future of nuclear, among other areas of focus.
Nuclear Energy Mass Hysteria
There is a consensus among US citizens and the world that nuclear energy is inherently hazardous and has too many long-term risks due to human error in building and maintaining large nuclear plants.
Chornobyl and 3-Mile-Island are constitutionally associated with atomic energy, as are the human neuroses shared by global populations. In spite of this, countries such as France and China have embraced nuclear energy as an important part of their energy infrastructure, and safety has improved considerably. Due to the combination of demand for cheaper renewable energy coupled with supply problems in the market, countries will be forced to use nuclear power for grid support as a measure to control costs without decreasing production.
There is a significant reduction in the size of new nuclear plants, and they are more powerful per unit of land than their predecessors. It is clear that nuclear energy will not be the only source of energy in the future, but when combined with other renewable and zero-emission technologies, they offer an unparalleled value proposition over fossil fuels. New nuclear plants are safer and more efficient than older facilities, despite 40 years of fear-mongering and mass hysteria.
Before we conclude, let’s review Wind, Solar, and Hydropower energy.
2023 🌅 Solar-power, 🌊 Hydro-Power, and 💨Wind-turbine Innovation
As a result of widescale adoption and demand for renewable energy production (12.7% of total energy consumption in the US is renewable), new more innovative approaches have been introduced for the solar, wind, and hydro-power industries, now let’s review each of these technologies in more detail before moving onto the conclusion.
In the past decade, solar adoption has grown exponentially in the US, with the cost per unit of energy produced now a fraction of what it was. There is an increasing number of residential rooftop applications of the technology in areas devoid of constant sunlight, such as the northeastern United States. Due to the more temperate, desert climate in the South West United States, solar power was considered more viable since access to the sun was more constant.
A number of advances in solar cell technology have contributed to this, including the development of more efficient and cost-effective photovoltaic cells, as well as concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, which have made it possible to utilize solar energy in large-scale applications. To store and distribute energy that is produced more efficiently than in the past, improved energy storage solutions are needed.
A hydropower plant utilizes the natural flow of water to produce energy. As early as 2000 B.C., water wheels were used to grind grain, making it one of the oldest sources of energy.
The hydropower market will continue to contribute to the global power grid, with innovations such as bi-directional turbines and pumped storage systems that are being developed to store excess energy generated by hydropower plants, a similar problem space to energy storage solutions for the battery industry.
With governments and businesses investing in renewable energy sources, hydropower is poised to become a major part of the energy mix in the years to come, accounting for roughly 16% of global electricity production at present.
Last but not least, wind turbines have gained increasing popularity across geographical regions in recent years as long as they have access to land with the optimal weather patterns for effectively generating power using wind. As a result of the optimal wind conditions at sea, many countries have invested heavily in wind energy in recent years, both for land-based applications and for sea-based turbines.
Technological advancement has made wind turbines more efficient and reliable, again pointing back to the optimized areas that I mentioned earlier, improved unit economic costs, maintainability, serviceability, and power generation.
As consumer demand for home-based renewable energy sources increases, innovative new products are becoming more affordable and scalable, with an almost infinite amount of potential business opportunities within the renewable energy sector.
🌎 🎖️ Conclusion
Thanks for reading part 1 of the 2023 business trends series, in which I focus on one theme or sector, per post, covering sector forecasts, market dynamics, innovations, and business opportunities.
Energy has been a major contributor to industrial and post-industrial economic growth, which includes all subsectors and industries as well as utility providers, a function that cannot be understated in the development of our modern economy; new technologies, and innovations.
To conclude, 8.2% of global GDP is attributed to the energy sector – Throughout this article, we have discussed a wide range of relevant topics around energy and innovation, including fission, fusion, hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and more novel technologies and business opportunities.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the 2023 business trends series, where I will be covering the Transportation Sector and Mobility Industry 2023 forecast – As I pointed out in the intro, I wrote a 36-page research paper to elicit all of the research for this post series, which I intend to serve as a guide to product teams and businesses when planning business, product, and strategy for 2023, and beyond.
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