Will There Be Enough Power With 100 Billion Connected Things?
Tamara McCleary
Academic research focus: science, technology, ethics & public purpose. CEO Thulium, Advisor and Crew Member of Proudly Human Off-World Projects. Host of @SAP podcast Tech Unknown & Better Together Customer Conversations.
This week in Vienna kicks off an incredibly important global discussion happening at Electrify Europe; energy, electricity, and the transformation of our entire power structure. Have you thought about how we will power 100 billion connected things, as well as, support all the electric vehicles set to disrupt the combustion engine automotive industry?
100 Billion connected devices by 2025, where is all that power going to come from? ...we have a technology industry basically wiping out the planet...I think we have more desire for consumption than we can actually create. ~ Thomas Power (Quote taken from the webinar. I'm reposting the re-play link here as you have to hear what these innovators, futurists, and thought leaders have to say. What a delicious raw, frank and very real discussion about our future, love for you to chime in!)
In an electricity sector undergoing rapid change and transition, it's vital for us to wrap our minds around the implications on the industry as a whole. Most of us are keenly aware of the conversations happening around Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, etc,, but I find it interesting that what powers our future is energy and I'm not hearing much discussion at the global events I have been keynoting this year on what's going to keep the lights on. That's when I found, Electrify Europe, a conference dedicated to bringing together thousands of innovators and thought leaders to discuss how the latest technologies will affect us, and how we can all benefit from evolving our businesses to position them for success in the future. Electrify Europe is the world’s first event dedicated to the convergence underway between the power generation and transmission & distribution sectors, driven by digitalization, decarbonization, decentralization and electrification.
The prosumer is hugely unpredictable, and the demands on the system are going to be great. The way you operate as a generator has to change beyond all recognition. ~ Glenn Ensor
I had the most incredible conversation with four key industry thought leaders around the topic of our uncertain power future. @Thomas Power, @Tom Raftery, @Glenn Ensor, and Alexander Decker joined me in discussing new innovations coming to the energy sector, as well as big disruptions poised to hit the future of not only energy transmission and distribution, but energy storage. Of course no disruption story is complete without a conversation around new business models, and service-centric is reigning king to product-centricity.
The street lights in Los Angeles are owned by Philips. Philips charges the city of Los Angeles for lumens delivered. ~ Tom Raftery (quote from our webinar, during our discussion of shifting service models.)
Certainly we observe Tesla reinventing what is possible in our energy future. Energy storage is changing the way we look at power generation and the utility industry as a whole. The stage is being set to upend the world as we knew it.
Tesla is rolling out 50 thousand virtual power plants in Australia connecting 50 thousand homes with solar tiles and wall batteries through a single interface to the grid...no doubt they will do the same thing with cars. ~ Tom Raftery (quote from our webinar, to hear more juicy insights, watch the replay here.)
More things we discussed in this webinar are the transformation of the power system structure, and the decarbonization of power generation and the electrification of industries and services is changing today's power supply infrastructure.
Cybersecurity takes center stage as we forecast the future of a connected everything, including our water, power, well everything that keeps us functioning...entire cities and governments.
I lock my doors at night in hopes it will not be my home that is broken into. It's the same with the power grid, I would say we should be very sure we have security, but I would never say it's 100% sure, as that's impossible. ~ Alexander Decker (quote from the webinar, discussing probability of a cyberattack on the energy grid.)
Now that cyberattacks are not necessarily human bad actors, but machine learning algorithms, it's a necessary knowing glance we must cast to the dark side. Where there is light, there is also dark, and I think it naive of us to only want to discuss the rose colored glasses version of the future. I am a realist. I like to prepare in advance for what can happen, and anyone involved in cybersecurity will tell you that it's never a question of "if" but rather, "when." Wouldn't you like to know what your energy and utilities companies have in-mind to make it much more complicated for a human or artificially intelligent bad actor to hack the grid?
You knew I couldn't post a blog post on LinkedIn without talking about Artificial Intelligence, right? Impossible. I'm keen to learn, absorb, and enter into the discussions around our future with AI, machine learning, the Internet of Things, (IoT), and of course, my favorite, e-mobility. As I am typing this I just drove my Tesla Model X from Denver, Colorado to Boston...the infrastructure Tesla has set-up for us here in the United States is unbelievably incredible.
Love to hear your thoughts around the future of energy... okay, I love to hear your thoughts on the future in general, as it is my favorite topic. Let's fasten our seat-belts, it promises to be one wild ride!
Watch our webinar now: The Future of Energy
Trabajador del Conocimiento/Knowledge Worker.
6 年All connected, all connected with clean energies, sensors to detect, measure and then computers that interpret and predict what may happen. From the sofa where we sit (tells us the best way to do it) smart televisions that detect programs that may interest us, and record them. Sensors for when we exercise that they tell us to the ear, that we accelerate, that we stop, that we change the style of swimming to strengthen other muscles ... Fascinating, exciting and wonderful world that arrives,
Gen AI | Product Management | Digital Transformation | Product Development | AI/ML | Analytics | Team Building | Leadership | Strategy | Startups | Growth
6 年Well summed up. It's surely something no one was talking about.
Demand Generation | B2B SaaS | AI, Security, CX, Healthcare | ABM | Integrated Marketing Campaigns | Revenue Growth | Data-driven
6 年Great points. I wonder what other means we will find to get energy in the future because IoT (and ur favorite #AI!) are here to stay. Perhaps we will have more focus and acceptance of energy harvesting or solar harvesting down the road.?
Sustainability Professional | Energy Storage | Permaculture Advocate | Food Security
6 年One of the key issues that is in need of changing, to reach the point of assured electrification without unsustainable ecological impact, is to move the needle away from distribution of energy from far away points towards more distributed energy generation.? By localizing energy production i.e. small scale solar, wind, waves, etc. we will have a fighting chance against rising pollution and CO2 while also offering the broadest adoption of electrification across the globe along with enhanced resiliency in communities impacted by natural disasters. Localizing production also reduces transmission losses, increases individual wealth, as well as offers tremendous opportunities to small businesses and entrepreneurs.?? Yet another major issue we must regard as critical to supporting all of these new technologies (and things, as the article suggests) is not just how much energy they produce but how much they help reduce waste in the energy sector. Energy waste from buildings alone is astronomical. Taken together, more efficient production and utility will allow for expanded numbers of users with less ecological impact overtime. We should endeavor to reach those goals at each step.?