The energy industry is transforming in many ways and largely due to the development of advanced technologies. The short-term and long-term outlook finds customers getting more control and increasing use of green energy sources.
By Wilfred Smith

The energy industry is one of the most volatile industries in the world. Pricing fluctuations, natural disasters, politics and a growing green energy sector contribute to the industry's volatility. In the midst of what often seems like a chaotic global marketplace, the industry as a whole is transforming itself by utilizing advanced technologies that improve customer services and reduce environmental impacts. In the United States, the energy industry also faces challenges like the renegotiation of NAFTA and environmentalists who support keeping certain areas closed to oil and gas drilling in order to preserve the natural landscape.

Despite the volatility and the need to find balance between over-regulation and innovation, excitement is pervading the industry as forward-looking advanced technologies give utility customers more control, make green energy production more cost efficient, and enable better management of supply and demand.

Mixed Bag of Trends
The energy industry's transformation is accelerating. One major change is that the U.S. has become an oil and gas exporter, in pursuit of President Donald Trump's goal of achieving energy dominance and energy independence.

The future of oil and gas exports is largely dependent OPEC and the NAFTA renegotiation which could lead to opening up new export markets in Mexico. The future of shale oil also looks strong because production costs are up to 50 percent lower than they were in 2015, and they are expected to stay lower. Liquefied natural gas production is also expected to remain strong.

The renewable energy industry is a mixed bag of trends. The growth in green energy utilization is heavily dependent on the U.S. government's policies and regulations. For example, the Trump administration is focused on the oil, gas, and coal segments of the energy industry, and it has twice proposed large budget cuts for the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The reductions impact programs designed to lower the cost of solar energy and significantly reduce the availability of research funds. The final DOE 2019 appropriation is currently being analyzed, but it is clear that the energy industry must take the lead in advancing alternative energy sources.

Storing the Power of the Wind and Sun
The current trend that will extend far into the future is continued movement toward increasing reliance on renewable energy. Technology is at the heart of the trend, making a number of things possible.

One is the continued growth of renewable energy resources that include wind, solar power, geothermal, liquid biofuels, hydropower, and wood or other types of biomass. In the short term, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a continued rise in wind generation for the next two years and continued increase in solar electricity generation. A likely long-term trend is significant increases in wind and solar power. A University of California-Irvine study predicts that investments in greater storage and transmission systems could enable the U.S. to meet 80 percent of its electrical needs with solar and wind power.

One of the challenges to overcome is the need to store enough energy to meet needs for several weeks. Developing new technologies for energy storage is another industry trend. Scientists are considering the feasibility of a storage system that could store at least 12 hours of the nation's electricity needs.

One of the factors holding back more rapid advances of solar and wind power use in commercial, industrial, and residential facilities is battery technology. The fluctuations of energy output from solar and wind can have a major impact on the electrical grid, causing voltage drops locally or even massive blackouts. This is what happened in South Australia when it pursued rapid installation of wind and solar power units without preparing the grid.

The fail-safe approach has been to add a network of fossil-fuel generators to handle energy demand peaks. A better approach is to develop battery storage capable of handling electrical grid needs, enabling continued installation of solar and wind energy systems. There are enormous opportunities for innovative companies to develop lithium-ion batteries or futuristic energy storage solutions.

Turning Waste into Energy
The long-term energy industry trends include an increase in waste-to-energy solutions and microgrids.

Waste-to-energy solutions can solve several problems at once. One is the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels. Another advantage is the recycling of waste, keeping it out of landfills and the ocean. "Waste" is a word that includes a variety of materials – biomass (plant or animal materials), nonbiomass (plastics and petroleum-based synthetics), glass, and metals. Just recently, it was reported that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now more than 600,000 square miles in size. This makes the development of new waste-to-energy production systems on a global basis an imperative.

It is expected that energy production will continue to move toward more local control. The future could hold an increasing reliance on microgrids which enable customers to produce and use power on a local basis. Microgrids are localized grids that are not connected to the main grid system. The microgrid is more flexible than the large main grid and is a good solution for integration of renewable energy systems, like solar power. The Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability is tracking a variety of microgrid activities and R&D efforts. This is an area ripe for new and innovative suppliers.

Finding Balance
The transformation of the energy industry will also be impacted by other events, such as the increase in the production of electric cars. Advancing technology is driving the trends, from the reductions in energy production costs to the development of alternative power sources. The U.S. has decided to take a leading role in producing and exporting fossil fuels, much to the dismay of environmentalists.

However, this conflict is representative of the challenges the energy industry faces. It is an industry that includes rigid governmental controls and a network of innovative suppliers. Finding balance between the two is the ultimate challenge.