In 2013, sustainable energy accounted for almost 22% of the global electricity generation and is expected to witness a 26% increase by 2020.
Due to the world economy’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels during the past decades, the carbon dioxide emissions accompanying economic development have intensified the global greenhouse effect; and global warming, climate change, and ecological destruction have severely threatened human survival. As a result, the issue of sustainable development is growing in importance, and the governments of many countries have made sustainable development one of their administrative focal points.
As the world moves towards a more sustainable energy future, the development of technologies that facilitate this for heating, transport, and power systems is crucial. Sustainable energy is one of the fastest growing and complex sector, as energy is an area of geopolitical concern as well as financial activity. There are many forms of sustainable energy that can be incorporated by countries to stop the use of fossil fuels. Moreover, sustainable energy is replenishable and helps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions without causing any damage to the environment. Sustainable energy sources include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and biomass energy.
Although the sustainable energy sector seems to have a promising future, there may be certain factors that affect its growth:
- The high capital costs: The most obvious barrier to sustainable energy is the upfront expense of building and installing such power harnessing facilities. Sustainable energy sources are free and require minimum maintenance. A bulk of the expense comes from developing the technology to harness and transmit such energy.
- Siting and transmission: The sustainable energy segment consists of a decentralized model with smaller generating stations spread across a larger area. To adequately take advantage of these resources new transmission infrastructures are needed, and both siting and transmission can be significant barriers for suppliers in this sector.
- Market Entry: New energy providers find it difficult to compete with major market players like coal and gas, and those who have proven themselves with low cost solar and wind technologies.
To overcome the challenges mentioned above, sustainable energy suppliers are increasingly opting for a detailed market intelligence assessment. Leveraging the use of market intelligence solutions help firms operating in the sustainable energy market gain a holistic view of the current market scenario and its key stakeholders.
At its core, market intelligence solutions make use of varied information sources that help in creating a broader picture of the company’ existing market, competition, and growth potential for new products and services.
The Business Challenge
- The client: A sustainable energy supplier
The client, a prominent sustainable energy supplier, wanted to gain detailed insights into the current market scenario to achieve a stronger foothold in the sustainable energy market space. The client also wanted to carry out a thorough analysis to improve their business models and projections. Additionally, the client was looking at utilizing statistical tools and more complex technologies to handle and manipulate the data.
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The Journey
Infiniti’s team of experts, specializing in market intelligence, carried out extensive interviews and discussions with prominent stakeholders within the sustainable energy market space. This helped them in understanding the current market scenario, the competitors in this market space, and the potential threats. Moreover, our experts were also successful in gathering information from primary sources including industry experts, researchers, consultants, and distributors. They also explored secondary sources like newsletters, business journals, market research data, and industry associations to improve their awareness in the sustainable energy space.
The Solution Benefits and the Business Impact
The market intelligence solution offered by the experts at Infiniti assisted the client in anticipating their competitor’s plan and helped them identify the gaps in the market. The solution helped the client by offering a 360-degree view of the market, suppliers, opportunities, and also highlighted areas of concerns. The client also gained a competitive advantage as these solutions enabled them to control costs, act faster than the competition, and react more quickly to customers’ needs. Moreover, it also helped them develop strategies to improve their market presence.
The Future
Considering today’s market developments, sustainable technologies are cheaper than nuclear and coal and are on par with combined-cycle natural gas. This, along with the lowered costs of digital equipment such as sensors, CPUs, and data storage technologies will help in the growth of the sustainable energy industry.
