Within a totally turbulent global context, the energy sector faces three compounded challenges: frugality, efficiency and the diversity of the energy mix. It's about consuming less, consuming better (for example through building renovation, better performing processes and equipments etc.) and prioritising the development of renewable or low-carbon energies. Within this scenario decarbonisation occupies a major position, particularly for building, industry and transport. In renewables, while electrical energies (PV solar, wind, water) are already well-established, renewable and recoverable heat solutions are also seeing renewed interest with solar thermal, biomass, heat pumps, and geothermal, together with waste heat recovery in industry or used water, and not forgetting the solid recovered fuels (SRF) used primarily in heavy industry. The same goes for renewable cooling in industry and construction (for example, low-carbon air conditioning).
Alongside this, biomethane is beginning to assert itself as an alternative fuel, and a whole industry is developing around green or low-carbon hydrogen as an energy carrier. For its part, energy storage continues to drive innovation, particularly around batteries.
Other trends are emerging or building momentum in the energy sectors. Amongst these are environmental carbon balances for whole renewable energy industries (such as for solar panels or wind turbine blades), the study of different routes to promote self-sufficiency in the raw materials key to the ecological and energy transition (aluminium, copper, steel, strategic metals etc.) but also load smoothing, which is at the heart of new regulatory requirements.
