Technology as a remedy?

Despite the arrival of spring and the long-awaited onset of winter, the electricity market is not letting up. Since mid-March, forward contract prices for the coming winter have been rising in France. These contracts are essential for energy suppliers and businesses, enabling them to cover future consumption.

Currently, electricity contracts for 2024 are trading at an average of 213 euros per MWh in France, and these prices are significantly higher than in neighboring countries. In Germany, for example, electricity prices for the fourth quarter of 2023 did not exceed 150 euros per MWh.

At a time when benchmark energy prices are skyrocketing, innovations are flourishing to help companies and public organizations reduce their consumption. Technology is omnipresent in solutions designed to support the transition to more sustainable modes of production and consumption.

Among these technologies, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are particularly promising. They enable us to monitor and optimize the energy consumption of buildings, industries and even entire cities in real time.

Connected buildings equipped with smart sensors and actuators, for example, can automatically adjust temperature, lighting and ventilation according to the presence and habits of occupants, but also to the weather and its inertia. The IoT also enables better management of power grids and more efficient integration of renewable energies.

In addition, energy storage technologies, such as batteries, should help solve the problem of intermittent renewable energy sources. Advances in this field will make batteries more affordable and more efficient, enabling us to store large volumes of energy produced by solar panels and wind turbines.

Finally, innovations in electric mobility and green hydrogen offer more sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels in the transport sector.

The opportunities are there, we just have to seize them.

According to the IPCC scenarios, technological progress will be an important factor in achieving our low-carbon objectives and limiting global warming.

Ultimately, the energy crisis at European level represents an opportunity to accelerate this transition and combat global warming, by massively introducing technologies into our new uses.

Time will tell.