Trends Identified
Wireless power
Society is deeply reliant on electrically powered devices. Yet, a significant limitation in their continued development and utility is the need to be attached to the electricity grid by wire – either permanently or through frequent battery recharging. Emerging approaches to wireless power transmission will free electrical devices from having to be physically plugged in, and are poised to have as significant an impact on personal electronics as Wi-Fi had on Internet use.
2012
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2012
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Artificial intelligence
Software algorithms are automating complex decision-making tasks to mimic human thought processes and senses. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a monolithic technology. A subset of AI, machine learning, focuses on the development of computer programs that can teach themselves to learn, understand, reason, plan, and act when blasted with data. Machine learning carries enormous potential for the creation of meaningful products and services — for example, hospitals using a library of scanned images to quickly and accurately detect and diagnose cancer; insurance companies digitally and automatically recognizing and assessing car damage; or security companies trading clunky typed passwords for voice recognition.
2017
The Essential Eight - Your guide to the emerging technologies revolutionizing business now
PWC
Artificial intelligence
Software algorithms that are capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence, e.g. visual perception, speech recognition and decision-making.
2017
Innovation for the Earth - Harnessing technological breakthroughs for people and the planet
PWC
AI
Software algorithms that are capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation. AI is an “umbrella” concept that is made up of numerous sub fields such as machine learning, which focuses on the development of programs that can teach themselves to learn, understand, reason, plan, and act (i.e., become more “intelligent”) when exposed to new data in the right quantities.
2016
Tech breaktroughs megatrend
PWC
Cloud
Software as a Service (SaaS) delivered over the Internet
2016
Disruptive technologies barometer
KPMG
Software to analyse statistical macromolecular markers
Software systems to analyse static (contextual) macromolecular markers will make it possible to carry out more in-depth genetic diagnostics (primarily for hereditary and orphan diseases). The expansion of the market for this product group will contribute to minimising the analytical processes in clinical laboratories and the emergence of specific personalised approaches to diagnostics. New systems which do not require expensive equipment and components could successfully compete with mass spectrometers and other modern analytical techniques.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Energy Efficiency Software
Software to conserve energy usage is “inherently a real estate technology for no other reason than that real estate consumes two-thirds of the U.S. electricity market,” says Wallace, whose firm focuses on investments in startups that tackle “built world” opportunities. “When you think about saving electricity, the most obvious place to look is buildings.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Next Generation Batteries
Solar and wind power capacity have been growing at double-digit rates, but the sun sets, and the wind can be capricious. Although every year wind farms get larger and solar cells get more efficient, thanks to advances in materials such as perovskites, these renewable sources of energy still satisfy less than five percent of global electricity demand. In many places, renewables are relegated to niche roles because of the lack of an affordable, reliable technology to store the excess energy that they make when conditions are ideal and to release the power onto the grid as demand picks up. Better batteries could solve this problem, enabling emissions-free renewables to grow even faster—and making it easier to bring reliable electricity to the 1.2 billion people who currently live without it. Within the past few years, new kinds of batteries have been demonstrated that deliver high enough capacity to serve whole factories, towns, or even “mini-grids” connecting isolated rural communities. These batteries are based on sodium, aluminium or zinc. They avoid the heavy metals and caustic chemicals used in older lead-acid battery chemistries. And they are more affordable, more scalable, and safer than the lithium batteries currently used in advanced electronics and electric cars. The newer technology is much better suited to support transmissions systems that rely heavily on solar or wind power. Last October, for example, Fluidic Energy announced an agreement with the government of Indonesia to deploy 35 megawatts of solar panel capacity to 500 remote villages, electrifying the homes of 1.7 million people. The system will use Fluidic’s zinc-air batteries to store up to 250 megawatt-hours of energy in order to provide reliable electricity regardless of the weather. In April, the company inked a similar deal with the government of Madagascar to put 100 remote villages there on a solar-powered mini-grid backed by zinc-air batteries. For people who currently have no access to the grid—no light to work by at night, no Internet to mine for information, no power to do the washing or to irrigate the crops—the combination of renewable generation and grid-scale batteries is utterly transformative, a potent antidote for poverty. But better batteries also hold enormous promise for the rich world as it struggles to meet the formidable challenge of removing most carbon emissions from electricity generation within the next few decades—and doing so at the same time that demand for electricity is growing. The ideal battery is not yet in hand. The new technologies have plenty of room for further improvement. But until recently, advances in grid-scale batteries had been few and far between. So it is heartening to see the pace of progress quickening.
2016
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Nanotechnology for solar
Solar cells, cheaper now than they have ever been, are poised for significant improvement due largely to nanotechnology. High-efficiency multi-junction solar cells, infrared energy capture and wavelength-splitting designs may increase high-efficiency solar cell performance by 200-300%. Roll-to-roll printing of solar cells on plastic using photosynthetic inks will allow solar panels to be manufactured at significantly lower costs than even today’s low prices.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
High performance computing
Solving complex problems– societal, scientific, industrial- needs trillions of calculations which cannot be done without High Performance Computing (HPC). Some of the examples are: integrated policy assessment, understanding and solving a wide range of problems in life sciences and health, materials research, fusion energy, aircraft fuel efficiency, reduction of aircraft noise, weight reduction of cars, safer transportation, climate and weather prediction, earth observation etc. HPC is of paramount importance for European competitiveness, and nearly every industrial sector depends on supercomputing to be competitive.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)