Written by Rudeon Snell, Global Partner Lead: Customer Experience & Success at Microsoft
*Azure high-performance computing provides a platform for energy industry innovation at scale.*
The rising demand for energy
Global energy demand has rapidly increased over the last few years and looks set to continue accelerating at such a pace. With a booming middle class, economic growth, digitization, urbanization, and increased mobility of populations, energy suppliers are in a race to leverage the development of new technologies that can more optimally and sustainably generate, store, and transport energy to consumers.
With the impact of climate change adding urgency to minimizing energy waste, in addition to optimizing power production leaders in the renewable energy as well as oil and gas industries are accelerating sector-wide innovation initiatives that can drive differentiated impact and outcomes at scale.
As the population of developing countries continues to expand, the energy needs of billions of additional people in rural and especially urban areas will need to be catered to. McKinsey estimates that global energy consumption will triple by 2050, with oil and gas accounting for 65 percent of power consumption by then.
In addition, supplies of conventional oil and gas are also expected to decline in the not-too-distant future, shrinking in concentration to mostly the Middle East (oil) and countries like Russia, Iran, and Qatar (gas). As a result, the transition to more sustainable sources of power is leading global energy producers to leverage next-generation technologies to transform their solutions while simultaneously optimizing their operations.
New innovators in the renewable energy industry are also adopting next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, 3-D imaging, and the internet of things (IoT), supported by high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities, to maximize energy production and ensure a smoother transition to a more sustainable path.
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