THE ROAD, SAYS ACCENTURE

By transitioning to cloud computing, oil and gas companies can not only save costs, but also scale more efficiently while simultaneously reducing their emissions.

The adoption of cloud computing to mitigate energy usage and increase the efficiency of the sector is something the data management solution company, NetApp, specialises in. The cloud computing giant helps energy companies manage big data to improve decision-making, accelerating data analysis for 3D modelling, exploration, seismic processing, and rendering.

Matt Watts, Chief Technology Evangelist at NetApp, believes that prioritising sustainability when selecting a cloud provider means companies can make leaps in their green efforts and demonstrate their commitment to a more sustainable future.

“Ways in which the sector can reduce emissions are by centralising data storage, reducing their reliance on on-premises data centres, and leveraging real-time analytics via cloud solutions, all of which will enable the oil and gas companies to optimise their operations, reduce downtime, and make data-driven decisions that improve their overall performance,” Watts states. Watts believes that embracing the cloud is done through the implementation of four steps:

• Assess

The first step is to assess how all your IT resources – both on-premises and in the cloud (if you have some in the cloud) –are being used today. Using infrastructure analysis tools that give you visibility across the stack, on-premises, and in the cloud.

• Analyse

The second step is to analyse how your data is being used, including where it sits and how active it is. We’d advise using technology that helps your company understand what data you have and how it is being used. A whopping 68% of data is cold data; discover, classify, and identify that data so that it can be moved to more sustainable cloudbased storage.

• Move

The third step is to move appropriate data to the cloud through migration, backup, and tiering. Public cloud provider data centres may be more energy efficient and sustainable than traditional data centres. Using hybrid cloud-aware, secure, and efficient migration tools will allow you to migrate your workloads to the public cloud faster and more efficiently, which means you can take advantage of sustainability at scale.

• Store sustainably

The final step is to use energy-efficient storage for the data that remains in your data centre.

NetApp in 3 minutes

Creating new value through AI-powered Virtual Power Plants

The increased usage of solar energy and wind turbines, in addition to batteries and other dispersed renewable energy resources, has necessitated a new strategy for energy management. Older systems, which were created for unidirectional energy distribution and centralised power production, are no longer viable, incapable of managing bidirectional energy flows, and insufficient for evolving societal demands. To tackle this energy paradigm, VPPs (Virtual Power Plants) – which utilise machine learning and AI capabilities – prove indispensable.

Honeywell is a major player in the realm of VPPs, namely with its Experion Energy Control System, which uses advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to analyse data and identify opportunities for efficiency improvements.

“Honeywell’s VPPs can optimise the aggregation of DERs across large areas by using digitalisation and deploying grid assets more efficiently. Technology such as ours enables resource owners to utilise every renewable energy resource at their disposal, they are contributing to the global energy transition,” says Honeywell’s Director of Energy Storage Solutions, Prudence Hoffman.

“Additionally, renewable sources such as solar are becoming more popular, particularly due to increasing company, local, and global sustainability goals. Through the remote management functionality within the Experion Control System, users have autonomous control to help them choose when they buy and deploy energy reserves regardless of the weather conditions.”

Next-gen technologies for a green future Technological innovation has total potential to transform how the world produces and consumes energy. Developing and integrating the next generation of AI-fuelled technology is key to the future of environmental sustainability. For energy giant Schneider Electric, this takes the form of what the company calls ’electrification’ by leveraging energy with automation and an integrated supply chain. Together, the company believes that they can reduce waste at every step in industrial processes by up to 20% or digitally connect organisational silos, freeing up innovations from the shop floor to management levels.

“One such digital technology that embraces an open automation architecture is Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert, a software-centric industrial automation solution with IE61499 at its core. It takes an event-driven, decentralised, and open approach to automation engineering, decoupling hardware and software to make an industrial system agile, simple and future-proof,” notes Schneider Electric’s President of Process Automation, Nathalie Marcotte.

Marcotte believes that “Next-gen automation will facilitate IT/OT integration, therefore unleashing value creation on the shop floor, enabling advanced use cases that easily reach the next level of performance, efficiency, and resiliency. These software-centric technologies paired with new energy methods (like biofuels or carbon capture) that fundamentally address carbon emissions and other harmful greenhouse gases are magnifying step-change improvements to the industry.” and within battery storage systems means that global supplies of Li-ion batteries are under strain. The world could face lithium shortages by 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says, meaning that research and lower manufacturing expenses, generate supplementary income sources, and receive tax advantages. This could additionally create employment opportunities through the emergence of new and expanded markets.

As demand for lithium-ion batteries grows exponentially, how do we ensure increased sustainability solutions along the battery value chain?

Implementing circular economy practices could also enhance market competitiveness by showcasing a business's dedication to eco-friendly initiatives, which could in turn build consumer trust and bolster its reputation. This approach could yield various environmental benefits, such as a reduction in waste, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, while also preserving raw materials.

As a result of these advantages, there may be increased federal, state, and local investment in circular economy initiatives in the United States, along with private investment in innovative products, services, and processes aimed at recovering and reusing materials.

An advocate for the circular economy is Clarion’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Adam Muellerweiss, who emphasises that the industry must utilise recycling to get the maximum life out of every energy storage device.

“There's only so many metals and materials on the periodic table that can be used for energy storage. We need them all and must be able to do them in a circular way. We need to be able to collect, manage, and reuse those resources.

“This is why we work with the Global Battery Alliance, formed with the World Economic Forum, to help foster this conversation globally, to really identify opportunities to use information, data, resources, and capabilities that we all have today in understanding the providence of materials, where they're going into what vehicle, ensuring chain of custody is managed, and to understand that, as that vehicle or that battery or that pack changes hands, second-life opportunities may be explored,” Muellerweiss states.