FEELING ENERGIZED YET? THE TOP ENERGY, POWER & UTILITIES TRENDS OF 2025 WILL GET YOU CHARGED UP

The power and utilities sector is experiencing disruptive changes as decentralization accelerates, grids modernize, regulatory forces take hold and innovative technologies get deployed at scale over the next few years.

Renewables Surpass Coal
Renewables reached 22% of U.S. generation in 2020. Annual solar and wind additions continue to gain ground as prices plunge. With pipelines expanding and coal plant decommissioning increasing, renewables will surpass coal providing over 25% of power supply by 2025 on route to much higher 2030 targets set across federal and state policies.

Energy Storage Momentum Builds
Pairing storage with renewables addresses intermittency allowing smarter grid balancing, outage mitigation and expanded electric vehicle infrastructure. As longer duration, cost-competitive battery innovations emerge from startups, storage capacity will exceed 15GWs in the U.S. – a 6x jump over current levels.

Smart Grids & Meters Standardize
Two-way connected smart meters collecting granular usage data from homes and businesses enable greater efficiency opportunities. Expanding IoT sensor networks, AI-enabled management platforms and advanced distribution infrastructure will modernize power delivery reaching over 60% smart meter adoption and sophisticated autonomous control capabilities across grids.

Grid Defection Acceleration
Solar panel and battery storage costs are hitting levels where households can cost-effectively leave the grid. While still less than 5% of customers today, communities with high energy costs combined with progressive net metering policies will see localized spikes in grid defection beyond 30% challenging utility revenue models.

Hydrogen Hype Begins to Materialize
Green hydrogen from electrolysis reached scale-up milestones in 2023. Rapid cost declines for solar and wind inputs combined with new production innovations will enable green hydrogen for long term storage, industrial processes and distributed power generation to gain momentum come 2025. But mass adoption remains 10 years distant.

Nuclear Fusion Hits Key Milestones
Achieving commercially viable nuclear fusion is still 15+ years away but progress accelerating today across over 25 well-funded startups as new high temperature superconductors and processes show promise. Achieving fusion “Net Gain” output milestones over the next 2-3 years raises confidence for scaling pilot plants by 2025.

Utility Business Model Reform
With grids modernizing, customers decentralizing and unrelenting weather events impacting infrastructure, traditional utility returns face growing risk. Outcome-based regulation focusing on resilience, affordability and sustainability versus capital returns will emerge across leading states benefiting customers while rewarding innovation.

Rise of Energy-as-a-Service
Customers lack tools to manage complex energy choices as renewable options and regulations explode. Enabled by smart devices, analytics and process automation, Energy-as-a-Service models will simplify buying, efficiency adherence, renewables integration and more through subscription bundles guaranteeing customer cost and carbon savings.