The big picture
- According to our research, using advanced technologies to transition to net-zero carbon emissions presents a clear opportunity for creating value.
- Across all sectors, the use of advanced technologies—such as 5G and cloud in electrification applications—can significantly reduce operational expenditures and improve energy efficiency, thereby also reducing CO2 emissions.
The challenge at hand
To deliver on the promises of net-zero pathways, organizations across all industries are deploying or developing a multitude of decarbonization solutions. These solutions often require the use of advanced technologies, such as 5G or cloud. Such technologies can significantly enhance decarbonization efforts; for example, they can optimize the generation of renewables, reduce operational expenditures in manufacturing plants, and improve energy efficiency, thus decreasing carbon production.
A leading high-tech player wanted to understand these advanced technologies’ potential effect on global net-zero pathways, and to assess the impact of high-priority, advanced technology use cases in the power and manufacturing sectors.
Results achieved
To help our client understand advanced technologies’ potential for decarbonization, we identified select opportunities for these technologies by analyzing over 500 decarbonization levers. Together with the client, we then chose several advanced-technology use cases in the power and (steel) manufacturing sectors for a closer look at the technologies’ possible impact (such as improving grid-balancing or creating digital twins). Throughout the engagement, support for conversations about business-unit strategy was strengthened by involving the broader organization in exploring how to capture net-zero opportunities.
Some of the key findings that now inform the client’s strategy include:
- Advanced technologies can play a role in more than 65 percent of global abatement efforts.
- Globally, using advanced technologies in the energy sector could reduce emissions by as much as 90 percent, in the transport sector by around 65 percent, and in the industrial sector by about 23 percent, with some regional differences.
- Advanced technologies have an especially high impact when used in renewables generation for 5G-enabled optimization of operations and management. In grids, they enhance active grid management and control, particularly by enabling faster outage resolution, increasing average utilization, and improving supply-demand balancing.
- In manufacturing, using advanced technologies results in OPEX savings and CO2 tax savings by improving energy efficiency and optimizing process and yield.
Based on the insights gleaned from the joint modelling effort, our client can now prioritize value pools for emission reductions and green growth transformations, and they can optimally deploy their advanced technology solutions. Additionally, the insights resulted in a public report that captures them in detail and showcases the client’s expertise in deploying advanced technologies in decarbonization use cases.
