3 Emerging technology trends in the energy industry

3 Emerging technology trends in the energy industry

Because we work with energy startups that are innovative by nature, at OG, we’re up to date with current industry trends.

Some are temporary, while others will likely stay with us longer. Some are unique to the energy industry, and others have already been known in other business sectors.

Today I’m presenting 3 trends that I believe will shape the energy market in a dozen or so years, and that’s why I want you to be already aware of them in 2022.

1. Decentralized and personalized apps

The era of one or two companies ruling the national energy market is long gone in many countries. Instead, there are more and more small energy intermediaries who take care of the individual needs of a modern customer and offer dedicated, personalized platforms instead of universal, monolithic apps.

Two reasons for this trend: on the one hand, consumers are becoming more aware and want to use energy as efficiently as possible while reducing CO2 emissions. And although this trend has mainly concerned Western European countries (Scandinavia, Great Britain), it has spread to other countries through the green policy of the EU.

Simultaneously, the new customer wants to use an intuitive mobile or web app to manage energy usage. Companies from other industries that have been investing in mobility, functionality, and user-friendliness for years have made them used to it.

Mobile and web apps that present energy usage and price charts are excellent examples of technology that answers these trends. They allow users to make conscious decisions daily and feel that they positively impact the environment.

2. Extension-friendly multi-platforms

Another emerging trend is the tendency of apps to connect with each other and collaborate. It’s also a trend coming from different industries, and phone roaming is a great example. Even if your mobile operator is unavailable in another country, you can still connect to the telephone network through a different provider.

The same trend can be seen in technology because the modern user wants all apps to work together and preferably merge into one. As a result, closed, dedicated solutions for a narrow range of services are slowly becoming the echo of the past.

Modern companies are either heading towards platforms, i.e., creating a digital space associating various suppliers or creating individual solutions that are extension-friendly and fully integrable with other apps.

3. Tools becoming multitools

At the beginning of its career, the mobile phone was designed only for making calls. Today it’s a camera, a map, a calculator, and a hundred other tools in one. Nowadays, we’re witnessing one more electrical invention slowly but surely becoming the second smartphone, and that is the electric car.

A typical example of the transition from a "car" to a "smartcar" is Vehicle2Grid technology, which allows cars to store electricity apart from just using it. Thanks to V2G, the vehicle becomes a driving battery.

The idea behind it is the reduction of CO2 emissions and financial issues. With a sufficiently large scale, such as a city electric bus fleet, energy can be stored and sold to residents when it’s the most expensive. Of course, V2G can also be used by end customers to use the stored energy in the internal home network, analogically to solar panels.

So these are the 3 emerging tech trends we see in OG. How is your company approaching them, if at all? Our experience tells us they are not temporary whims but actual directions of development of the energy industry. So if you want to stay at the top of the game, consider including them in your business portfolio ASAP.