Trends Identified
New-wave nuclear power
Advanced fusion and fission reactors are edging closer to reality. New nuclear designs that have gained momentum in the past year are promising to make this power source safer and cheaper. Among them are generation IV fission reactors, an evolution of traditional designs; small modular reactors; and fusion reactors, a technology that has seemed eternally just out of reach. Developers of generation IV fission designs, such as Canada’s Terrestrial Energy and Washington-based TerraPower, have entered into R&D partnerships with utilities, aiming for grid supply (somewhat optimistically, maybe) by the 2020s. Small modular reactors typically produce in the tens of megawatts of power (for comparison, a traditional nuclear reactor produces around 1,000 MW). Companies like Oregon’s NuScale say the miniaturized reactors can save money and reduce environmental and financial risks. There has even been progress on fusion. Though no one expects delivery before 2030, companies like General Fusion and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout, are making some headway. Many consider fusion a pipe dream, but because the reactors can’t melt down and don’t create long-lived, high-level waste, it should face much less public resistance than conventional nuclear. (Bill Gates is an investor in TerraPower and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.) —Leigh Phillips
2019
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2019 - How we’ll invent the future, by Bill Gates
MIT Technology Review
New, more business-friendly governments and administrations
17% of the respondents view this as a positive trend
2017
Adoption of intelligent automation does not equal success. 4Q 2017 KPMG Global Insights Pulse Survey Report.
KPMG
New, more business-friendly governments and administrations
18% of the respondents view this as a positive trend.
2019
4Q 2018 KPMG Global Insights Pulse Survey Report
KPMG
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)
Next generation genome sequencing
The technology can transcript genome at superhigh speed with extreme sensitivity and low price as well as compare it to the standard genome sequence in order to identify mutations. It is expected that medical demand will rise due to rapid aging society, and this technology can provide personalized diagnosis and treatment from reading the patient’s genome.
2013
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2013
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Next-gen nuclear fusion materials withstanding extreme environments
(Definition) Materials technologies relating to materials for the blanket that converts the energy generated from the deuterium-tritium reaction into thermal energy and divertor reducing charged particles and thermal fluxes from plasma by using the magnetic field structure for the development of nuclear fusion technology (Use) Secure a clean and safe source of energy in large volume by commercializing nuclear reactors based on the development of fusion materials.
2019
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2019
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Next-Gen Workforce
The retirement of baby boomers and the growth in the millennial workforce requires organizations to create new incentives to attract, develop, and retain a more competitive and flexible labor pool.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte