Power storage and generation a top technology of strategic priority
Power storage and generation ranks third in the top ten technologies that are considered a strategic priority globally, the World Economic Forum has reported.
In the new report, Markets of Tomorrow Report 2023: Turning Technologies into New Sources of Global Growth, which was released to coincide with the Forum’s annual meeting, the organisation identifies agricultural technologies as being viewed globally as the most important strategic priority, followed by education and workforce development technologies and then power storage and generation.
Similarly, the energy sector ranks third among the sectors in which their chosen technologies might unleash new markets. First in this category was information and technology services, followed by the agriculture sector.
The study was based on a more than 12,000 response survey carried out in more than 120 economies.
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The third key aspect was on the main obstacles to the growth of new markets, with the top three responses as skills and talent, infrastructure and initiative from the public sector.
Commenting on the finding, the report states that while the energy disruptions triggered by the war in Ukraine may have elevated the immediate salience of power storage and generation technologies – particularly in Europe, where they were the top priority in ten economies – their growing prominence reflects the ongoing and increasingly urgent process of transitioning to a low carbon energy system.
The report cites the IEA’s estimate that clean energy investment is going to have to triple under a net zero 2050 scenario, while flexibility will have to quadruple.
“Technologies for storage and flexibility are key to the global energy transition because they are the limiting factor for integrating renewables into the energy grid.”
Top ten energy technology countries
The report also ranks the top ten economies that cite power storage and generation as a strategic priority – and perhaps not surprisingly, they make up a remarkably economically and geographically diverse line up.
They are:
- Poland
- Estonia
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- Greece
- Austria
- Malawi
- Denmark
- Zimbabwe
- Barbados
The top ten countries in which energy technologies are most likely to generate new market opportunities are also diverse but less so.
These are:
- Denmark
- Finland
- Iceland
- Austria
- Netherlands
- Czechia
- Spain
- Ireland
- South Africa
- Portugal
