Energy Insights Predicts Climate Change Issues to Drive Increased Tech Investment in 2008

Energy Insights, Framingham, Mass., announced the release of its annual Worldwide Energy Industry 2008 Top 10 Predictions. According to the study, climate-focused energy policies, consumer and business concern with climate change, and increasing attention by investors in sustainability will drive energy companies to increase their investments in a range of technologies including:

• IT systems to measure and manage a company's carbon footprint
• Software applications to enable participation in carbon trading markets
• Renewable energy technologies, especially wind, but also central solar

“In an environment of increasing energy demand, rising and volatile energy prices, and policymaker concern over energy independence and security, we predict that energy companies will increase their technology investments to enable initiatives from smart metering and the intelligent grid to enhanced reservoir characterization and higher fidelity seismic imaging,” said Rick Nicholson, vice president of Research, Energy Insights.

Key predictions presented and analyzed in this study include:

• Intelligent grid initiatives will leverage existing investments and target specific problem areas
• Renewable energy will compete as a leading source of new electrical capacity in the U.S.
• Carbon trading markets will begin to take off in North America, eventually surpassing Europe
• High performance computing will be driven to technical limits by seismic processing demands.

Energy Insights annually identifies the top trends that will heavily influence the direction and magnitude of technology investment, management, and evaluation.