Discussion Room 4: Innovation, Technology and Data

Hello and Welcome! Discussion Room 4 on Innovation, Technology and Data is now officially OPEN

Hi everyone! This is Han Chen from China, one of the co-leads in this discussion. Glad to meet you all here! For those who speak Chinese, I have a special welcome video for you here.

I have an interdisciplinary background - I studied tourism management for 6 years then interned at UNESCO Beijing Office and also traineed at UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme for nearly 2 years. Currently, I am working as Program Associate at Energy Foundation China, focusing on cooling efficiency related projects.

Please come and join the discussion! You can also speak(type) in your own language! No points too small. Look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers! :)))

Hi, 

This is Anahita and I would like to go over the first question with regards to disruptive innovation:

I think in the context of developing countries, where many institutional barriers exist and prevent them from adopting innovative technologies and practices, international organizations such as UNDP and UNIDO could play a key role. They can leverage their experience in other countries by using their models and best practices and in collaboration with the governments and NGOs in developing countries facilitate adoption of innovative approaches and technologies. 

In many countries, like my country Iran, where there are many educated people in the fields of engineering and sciences, it might be easier to integrate technology and innovation into lives of people, especially in big cities. However, this might lead to more technological inequalities and gaps among cities and regions. So one thing to flag here is to make sure no one is left behind. I think one important aspect of benefiting from innovation and technology is to first provide those who are left behind with the tools and capabilities that enables them to keep themselves up-to-date so that they can build upon those tools and be empowered to become early adopters of newer technologies.

Another important issue is paying attention to the fact that many businesses and livelihoods, and more often in rural areas and less developed regions, are not sustainable over time and can be replaced by technology. Therefore, one of the roles of the implementing institution is to keep this in mind and facilitate the gradual shift from older methods to adopting newer technology.

I am looking forward to hearing from other members and learning about their ideas and experience in this area.

Best,

Anahita

Hello everyone! So excited to kick off this discussion group as your lead moderator along with our amazing co-moderators Han and Sumaiya!

If you missed the launch event this morning, here is a short intro from me and Caroline has included a fantastic set of resources at the top of this page to get you started on the questions, background reading, and rules of engagement to keep the conversation constructive and respectful. 

Please feel free to start the discussion by sharing your perspectives and input on the four topics (disruptive innovation, scaling technology, transportation, social innovation), introducing yourself and/or asking any questions you have for us. 

I look forward to learning from all of you and taking your perspectives into the High-level Dialogue on Energy! 

Well said, Anahita Hosseini .

From my perspective, the biggest barriers are regulations, monopolies and state-owned companies. To be a producer of clean energy, there are a set of regulations and special permissions you need to have to start a company producing clean energy. Then you need to get a permission from usually state-owned companies to use the grid to transfer the energy from the production facility to the end consumer.

Next, the sale of energy has a lot of risks involved, as generally you don’t have a fixed price at which you can sell the energy, and state-owned companies usually award the agreements to bigger companies as their rates are much more favourable than smaller scale power plants that new entrepreneurs can offer.

Lending rates and interest rates in banks pose a big threat to profitability and making the business financially viable. In many countries, even in the EU, the interest rates are +5%, while in non-EU and “third world” countries they reach between 15-20%, making projects in those countries unprofitable.

To overcome those challenges, I would recommend creating more opportunities for young startup companies to work with bigger energy companies, have pilot projects, proofs of concept for new technologies, opportunities for mentorship from employees of those big companies and opportunities for investment afterwards.

It is extremely hard to innovate in the energy sector because of the needed certificates for the equipment, inability to test it in real world scenarios, and if this is not available, then raising an investment to grow those companies is  impossible.

Another barrier that should be mentioned is the network reliability regulation, where each Megawatt of renewable energy has to be covered with 1 Megawatt from “old sources”. This is done by the states themselves to ensure that in the evenings when the sun is not shining, and wind is not blowing, that they are still able to supply the grid reliably.

Last but not least, there is a good directive from the EU that has been put in place few years ago. It enables customers to become producers or prosumers, by putting solar panels on the roofs of their houses and to sell extra energy to the grid. In some countries it works well, in some it doesn’t work at all as the price prosumers get for their extra energy isn’t even 50% of the normal price per kilowatt hour. That’s why even when they install solar systems, they are advised to install a 20% smaller capacity system, to be cost efficient.

Hi everyone! This is Sumaiya from Bangladesh, one of the co-leads of moderation in this discussion. Delighted to be a part of this amazing working group. 

I am already amazed to see some of your perspicacious comments. After reading those, I am certain this will be wind up into an extremely fruitful and enlightening discussion. 

Looking forward to your further contributions. Each of your opinions is extremely valuable to us. 

Thank you

Greetings everybody! This is Rita, IUNV Energy expert from UNDP Comoros.

This is a such a great opportunity to bridge solutions all around the world on entrepreneurship as a key enabler to reaching SDG7, and make youth voice heard on how to foster a just transition through digital transformation with a LNOB approach. 

Looking forward to hearing from you to share experiences, projects, and ideas, 

Hello everyone! While I'm getting familiar with all the documents, I wanted to share one project I've seen in Cambodia that came to my mind as it totally fits 1. Disruptive innovation, 2. Scale and 4. Social innovation! I'm sure some of you heard about them already :)

It's called Okra Solar - Energy Access Technology for the Last Mile: "Okra’s hardware and software empowers energy companies – from mini-grid developers to SHS distributors – to deploy and manage last-mile projects at scale."

They have also been highlighted by UNDP Cambodia very recently here: https://undpcambodia.exposure.co/power-to-the-people. 

If you know any other inspiring impact startups, please share on this thread as well, would love to explore more! 

Hi everyone, I am Saand from Vomoros islands. 
Thank you all for bringing your perspective on these questions, I would like to remind us that we should not forget that most of the countries lack data and well trained people that can actually implement and use effectively whatever technology is available... we have still countries where even if tomorrow we were given the opportunity to access finance and technology, the existing policies, regulations and HR is not ready.

Many young people from those countries do not feel like participating in such discussions if they know that no matter what we’re so far behind everybody else that by the time we catch up on other countries ... 30 to 50 years already went by

And I know from experience that this is why many young people from countries like mine do not engage in these consultations 

However we still need to make them understand that no action is not a solution neither ... and that’s a big challenge 

In comoros we do not have electricity 24/7 internet is quite expensive especially form young people who often do not have jobs... on top of that the network is not reliable.. and I believe this is also the reality of many other youth from different regions. So asking them to add their perspective online so they can be represented by a couple of other youth that are not living their reality can seem unfair is ??‍♂️...

But we will keep pushing cause again no action is never an option for us ! 

Hello everyone! We are aiming to get feedback from all of you on this topic by the end of the week so we can make sure to incorporate your perspectives into the youth-led input provided to the HLDE under each Technical Working Group. 

With that said, please do continue to contribute your ideas, perspectives, solutions, and best practices you've seen, and the challenges and barriers to unlocking Innovation, Technology, and Data to achieve universal clean energy access by 2030! 

Some refreshed prompts I invite you to respond to:

1. How can social innovation accelerate a sustainable energy transition by 2030?
2. What are the key barriers in scaling renewable energy technology for on-grid power systems, off-grid (last-mile communities), and the heavy industry sector (including heavy transportation, such as shipping)?
3. What data, research, and development is needed to transform the policy, technology, and regulatory landscape to enable an inclusive sustainable energy transition?

To accelerate energy transition through innovation, it is very necessary to understand that innovation is not reflection, but an application of reflection, and that is why technology is not innovation. 

Technology does not solve or generate any competitive advantage if it is not applied, and that is where the innovation is, in the application itself.

Innovation for energy transition is nothing if it is not contextualized and put to use, in addition to taking into account that innovation based on nature would also give us results, not only technological.

Innovation will allow us to act in a climate crisis in many ways, starting with obtaining digital or analog data, which when interpreted will give us key information and sufficient knowledge to design and implement solutions, giving them meaning and use for society

It is crucial to simultaneously innovate in our behavior in the next 5 years, the way we organize and mobilize regionally, how we collaborate to address all problems and how we create networks of actors aligned and not aligned with the roots of the problem

Hi all! The idea of social innovations in energy is pretty close to my heart at the moment. For the last three years, as part of my phd I have been developing a way of building complex socio-cultural, environmental and financial contextual factors into the implementation of energy technologies that have the ability to alleviate poverty. Often engineers (in the International Development and especially the Humanitarian aid sectors) focus on the technical development of energy technologies, chasing improved efficiencies and capacities, rather than looking to understanding the complex socio-cultural, environmental and financial contextual factors that often override the technical capabilities and become the major barriers to sucess. You can find more about what i do here - . Would love to discuss more with anyone!

I believe young entrepreneurs are an excellent medium of producing the required technology at feasibility. A tri-lateral relationship between young entrepreneurs from both rural and urban areas, government and/or private companies could develop a framework of building and implementing technology. Young entrepreneurs who have potential ideas could get funded from private companies as venture capitalism from where companies could get an incentive. Government could provide aid to this relationship through infrastructural support, promotion and subsidies and in return the responsibility of working towards SDG could be through the medium of young entrepreneurs' ideas. 

To boost innovation mosting in developping countries, incentive programs such as those often proposed by the UNDP most be more closer to innovators. This can be through communication of be to be, because most individuals creating are not aware of many program that can support or follow up the reseatch. Secondly, we have our state program that has to boost research program in their educational system, pushing young talent to go over innovation and aslos through support. Lastly entreprises have major role to play in the this process of boosting innovation through good framework of most apprentice in their company.

Our Culture influences many leaders, entrepreneurs etc today and in the past. Infact, each of us has experienced such events. Eventhough it's true that many other's or new generations (youth are trying to harmonise this, due to standards).

This may also be a serious factor to attain SDG7 goals by 2035, because many regions of the world are trying to protect or conserve their culture in decisions making either in innovation, technology development, entrepreneuship, eduaction and etc.

Hi all, great to see so much enthusiasm in this discussion. 

Before we get into the importance of scalability and integration, I would like to point out how important it is to gain the trust of locals before asking them to integrate clean energy technology into their lives. Here in India, my team founder a last-mile distribution company called Candela Energy. During our products pilots, we were shocked to see that most of the locals were not ready to use advanced life-improving products only because they did not trust their functionality. Large scale dissemination strategies of any technology are just as important as the technology itself. 

Hence to summarise, I believe that clear energy integration is no just about technology or economics, but also includes various aspects of understanding communities and their problems.

Transportation (supply chain) of clean energy may be very costly and may equally need modern technology for the future years ahead. The complexity of this transportation, will result to high prices sale this clean energy.

So to resolve such a situation, youth contribution should be done at the level ameliorating our supply chain management system.

Hi Folks,
I'm Neel, I am the Solar Strategy Lead at SPACE10 (IKEA's innovation lab) where I'm leading research explorations and identifying opportunities for how solar energy can become a key enabler for communities with limited means to improve their everyday life at home. I previously also lead a research study to better understand people's needs, dreams and aspirations with regards to energy in 4 continents. 

I've previously worked on building 300+ mini-grids in India in association with the Rockefeller Foundation (Smart Power India) and subsequently also led the product development for the world's first peer-to-peer energy trading platform in Bangladesh. (SOLshare).

Would be glad to connect with like-minded people on LinkedIn and Twitter to explore synergies. 


Here are a few of my initial reflections on the prompts:
 

1. How can social innovation accelerate a sustainable energy transition by 2030?
   
   - There are a lot more ways in which innovations can include people while they are being designed. 
   - Building solutions to enable people to play a more active role in energy decisions is critical
   - Designing solutions to nudge people towards more energy-efficient solutions can also go a long way in involving people in the process
    
2. What are the key barriers in scaling renewable energy technology for on-grid power systems, off-grid (last-mile communities), and the heavy industry sector (including heavy transportation, such as shipping)?
   
   - Upfront capital investments still remain the major bottleneck, energy transitions can be accelerated through more financial innovations as well
   - Localised manufacturing, production and assembly can also give rise to new circular business models
    
3. What data, research, and development is needed to transform the policy, technology, and regulatory landscape to enable an inclusive sustainable energy transition?
   
   - Local investment in R&D 
   - Low Tech - Data optimised energy-efficient solutions 

Amazing discussions in here. What could Africa do better in adopting large scale deployments of energy efficient infrastructure management and audits with https://me-solshare.com/ Neel Tamhane what can this solution do better in measuring community carbon offsets and in particular for use in African countries to monitor transparency and efficiency of solar farms. Has this storage facility been deployed in Africa yet? Please you could reachout to [email protected]

We'd like to mention our concept within the social innovation scopes which forms a nexus between SDG7 and SDG4.

Over 17 Million young African between the ages 11-17 find it difficult to cope with learning seasmlessly like their peers in developed nations. This has been due to incesant power outages in communities.

https://linkedin.com/company/innovea-energio introduces a solution to these problem by designing a solar powered learning hub ready to be scaled in community schools where pupils can find respite from their woes.

The Hub itself is a standalone mini-grid systems modelled to harness the abundantly free solar energy resource in Africa in order to promote learning and community development. A PPP approach to finding lasting solutions to outages in community schools in Africa. Looking forward to deploying the first hub in riverine community in Ondo State Nigeria. Seeking collaboration to scale this and make it a worthwhile solution to end the social disconnect between vulnerable community groups by promoting Clean Energy for social good. This is a Development from the Energy Transfer Hub for Efficiency and Renewables (ETHER) under The auspices of Innovea Development Foundation and another use case for humanitarian energy. Thus, a social nudge for achieving impact in other sectors through sdg7 for an inclusive energy transition. This prospects are more likely to be adopted for Asia Pacific and Sub Saharan Africa

Helen Watts Education exchange programs could help in maximizing and transfer knowledge from developed nations to less developed counterparts. This could be achieved through partnerships between Academia, Research Institutions and Research funding agencies and non profits. University exchange are most likely the win win game changers to broaden the scopes of learning and institutional mechanism for advancement are often funded by UNESCO and UNITAR. 

Bridging the knowledge gap simply means learning what has been learnt without practical or pragmatic approach to translating knowledge into action. Here is where innovations comes in play. Thankfully more institutions and The Academia are looking towards these corridor. We know a few of them but the challenges comes handy when research needs or criteria differ from the actual needs where those researched needs to be deployed by the students whenever they return from their exchange programs. Another challenge is funding for such research. 

These research can now be localized through collaboration with local institutions. 

More on local manufacturing. The economies of scale in deploying and establishing modular installation plants for solar PVS most especially has become an herculean task. Hence the need for OECD nations to cooperate more towards recycling and maintenance facilities in regional and local markets. Calling for a policy baked approach to incentivizing and setting investors in such areas on a tax regiment so as to achieve this through waivers for infrastructure targeted at renewable resources. Another approach is the carbon pricing leadership, which can be promoted through the WTO and the WB Climate

Renewable energy should be the order of the for the world to achieve  SUSTAINABILITY . New technology and innovative ideas should explored to make sure SDG7 goal is achieved,for life to be good for everyone Sustainable energy is paramount. 

As someone in the construction industry, efficient and green homes are highly linked to efficient and Sustainable energy in other to have zero gas emissions and zero waste and carbon footprints.

大家好，我是第四讨论组的小组成员陈晗。非常欢迎大家来到这个讨论组，在我们咨询的最后一周，希望大家能够抓紧时间献出你们宝贵的想法。即使你不说英文，也完全可以用其他的语言/自己的母语评论，因为Sparkblue有强大的翻译功能！这都是为了更好地聆听所有青年的声音。所以，不要犹豫，快快参与进来吧！

I believe innovative technology should be built considering the widest applicability and feasibility. Both of these components are necessary for the framework to be globally efficient. Resources shall always be limited because they always enough for everyone's need and never for anyone's greed. Hence, the mobilization of resources in channelizing in the provision of clean energy through innovative technology should be one of the primary aims.

Innovation and Technology are very important in the energy sector. More support and help must be given to persons or organizations who will help in inventing new ideas and inventions so as to forster the goals of the SDG7 . There must be a favourable ground for all parties involved in energy sector who really want to invent and create technologies that will take the energy sector to a greater height.

   Those with innovative ideas must be encouraged and those carrying thoughts of research must also be supported.

 And there should be proper data management in the energy sector.

Hello everyone!

My name is Oriana Petitjean and I am from Venezuela. Currently, 42% of the Venezuelan population has daily energy breakdowns and that is why its stable access is a really important topic over here. 

Five months ago I enrolled in an international innovation competiton with some friends with the idea to help cover our country needs, and we developed a disruptive and cheap idea: to generate electricity from plants. This could sound crazy but we did research and experiments and it is actually feasible. Now we are planning to develop our prototype and take it to the market so we can tackle the Venezuelan need and latter on, we would like to take it overseas. 

I consider that there should be many ideas like this worldwide, and I think that in order to boost innovation on the matter it is important that we have more spaces and competitions to promote the creation of new alternatives; maybe in alliance with schools or universities to make this challenges a mandatory class for innovation. Also, I consider that it is important to create and promote investment mechanisms so that youth can take their ideas into concrete actions!

Hi Everyone

I am Ashlin, currently work for the City of Cape town municipality, South Africa under Energy and Change Change. 

1. In South Africa the innovation and technology is well established. The private and public sector need to take advantage of these opportunities. Policy and regulation should be set to choose least cost technologies over a long time frame.

2. Jevons paradox always comes to mind. The introduction of new technologies means better efficiency and less spend on energy. However, this extra money gained by consumers will go to other sectors of the economy such as cars, clothing, electronics etc. thus a total overhaul of the linear economy into a circular one is definitely needed. Designing waste out and the private sector willing transitioning their business to cleaner practices, voluntarily, as well as holding government accountable to their own policies (Eskom in the South African case).

3. In a South African context, the need for higher taxes on Electric vehicles needs to be turned into incentives to buying these vehicles. Also, a manufacturing needs to shift from ICE components to electric powertrain components. Skills in developing fuel Cells both electric and hydrogen based are definitely lacking.

4. The same old cry for more jobs, service delivery and basic human rights is one of great importance as there has been a failure to achieve this. The threat of Climate Change changes our ability to achieve these goals for people, as was done in the past. The Just transition needs to be seen as a mechanism to achieve the most basic of needs for people. It is hard for people to think about Climate Change when they have more “immediate” needs yet pushing the government towards a Just transition immediately may be the only sensible decision, as our time is running out.

1. Social innovation engages the people, thus building and changing their habits. I think technologies that change our energy culture and intrinsically promote energy behavioural changes will do more than just reducing emissions. I see to many people in SA who have no understanding of what each of their actions has on the future generations.

2. Scaling renewable energy makes us vulnerable due to the lack of dispatch-ability. Storage will allow more security but also large industry such as smelters to use this energy.

3. The red tape is the biggest barrier in many Cities around SA. Innovative projects are not always possible due to outdated procurement and finance mechanisms.

Data (credible energy balances) and energy modelling on 100% RE scenarios are key to galvanising these concepts to our politicians. Conventional power has done a great job in delivering to the needs of is people through job creation and energy supply. We need to show RE can do the same.

This consultation will close shortly. Your moderators will post their summaries in the next few days.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants for your excellent and thoughtful inputs and to encourage you to remain engaged in this group. We will leave the Networking Lounge and the News Room open so please keep posting and stay tuned for "the next steps" and new opportunities from UNDP.

We look forward to continue working with you!

Caroline Baxter Tresise
Facilitator, Community of Practice on Energy, UNDP

Thank you every for your insightful contributions. It was really a constructive and thought-provoking consultation. I learned a lot. Hope we will stay connected.

Stay safe and take care.