Innovate UK’s energy predictions

The video features Alice Goodbrook, innovation technologist at Innovate UK, interviewed by presenter Sarah Lamptey, and shows how innovation should mean the future looks brighter than ever.

One of the major benefits of decentralised energy, Innovate UK says, is the move away from inefficient large power stations to localised production, so that energy won’t have to travel so far.

To make energy part of the circular economy – where, rather than producing, using and disposing of resources, they are kept in use for as long as possible, recovered, regenerated and re-used – there will need to be a shift away from buying energy in kWh and towards buying energy as a service. This means that instead of consumers buying energy from a supplier, they pay a company to get energy at the best price, get the best value from the energy they generate, and improve the efficiency of their homes so that they use less energy.

The biggest change of all is that consumers will go from being on the edge of the energy system to being at its heart. They will have more control over where their energy comes from, how and when they want to consume it, and can take an active role in making sure it doesn’t cost the earth.