Study of innovative technologies in the energy industry: nontraditional and renewable energy sources

Abstract

The goal of the article is to carry out a comprehensive study of theoretical and practical development of innovative technologies in the energy industry through the energy trilemma “energy efficiency – energy security – environmental sustainability”. Transformation of the world energy industry is accompanied by a change in the dominant types of fuel in the energy balance, technological and organizational innovations, expansion and optimization of the supply chain. The current stage of the international energy market transformation is described by a growth of demand for energy supply, intensified use of renewable energy sources, and increase in the energy efficiency. Respectively, the investments in the energy industry should be spent on the creation and implementation of solutions that will meet the growing demand, compensation of the decline in energy supply production from the existing oil and gas fields, and the development of the infrastructure of traditional and renewable energy resources. The article uses the content, analytical, statistical and functional methods of research to explore the current state and trends in the transformation of the global energy industry, the main areas of which are the development of nontraditional hydrocarbon (shale gas and oil sands) and renewable energy sources (RES); the use of these sources on the basis of technological innovation is considered to be more efficient. The following conclusions have been made based on the materials presented in the article: the use of various nonconventional hydrocarbon fields will spread in the energy industry in the coming decades; the specific weight of new technologies applied to production and consumption of energy derived from renewable sources, in particular, will increase; transition from the use of renewable energy sources of the first order to the use of renewable energy of the second order should be expected in the long term; and new energy servicing technologies based on the concept of smart grids will be introduced, along with the development of technologies for the extraction of energy resources.