Australian open innovation ecosystem EarlyBirds is helping decision-makers in the public and private energy sectors understand the critical elements of the transition to green energy – green electrons, green molecules, and green bits. Readers can find out more about EarlyBirds by heading over to earlybirds.io.

While governments all over the world have time and time again expressed their desire to move away from traditional non-renewable energy sources, the challenges that prevent such a transition have been hard to overcome. Competing in the global economy is of prime importance and any policy changes that threaten a nation's ability to create and support industrial activity are met with fierce resistance. The transition to green energy is, essentially, a balancing act that requires switching over without sacrificing the progress that has already been made.

These obstacles have also magnified the disparity between developing and advanced nations. Since the developed world mostly relies on service-based economies while developing countries have strong manufacturing sectors, many nations will not be inclined to meet green energy goals while disrupting their primary drivers of growth. Finally, precarious geopolitical situations, especially in regions where rare earth minerals are found, impede the ability to mine resources and establish the supply chains needed to fuel the green energy transition.

EarlyBirds cofounder Kris Poria talks about how solutions can be found for these problems by saying, "We have several tools at our disposal, each at different levels of maturity and readiness for mass production. While the technologies are diverse, the elements at their core remain the same. Bolstering the technological understanding and the capability to scale up production for each of these core elements can help nations and private energy producers make the switch to green energy much more economical and seamless."

The core elements that Kris is referring to include green electrons, green molecules, and green bits. Green electrons are the energy carriers that traverse the grid and can be stored for future use. Green molecules encompass the materials that act as fuel or are used to create batteries to accumulate energy from green electrons. Finally, green bits include the array of digital services that control and ensure the smooth operation of green energy infrastructure.

EarlyBirds cofounder Jeff Penrose explains the impact that technological development on each of these elements can have on facilitating the green energy transition. Jeff says, "Moving to renewable sources for the production of green electrons can significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the global economy's reliance on crude oil. By investing in higher-density batteries using novel green molecules and creating a more robust grid that allows individuals to contribute energy, countries can involve their most passionate residents and hasten the transition. Finally, creating and tweaking digital technologies to support the advancements in green electrons and green molecules will help reduce costs, improve efficiency, and add resilience to these systems. If you believe you have an innovation that can help facilitate the green energy transition, you are welcome to sign up for the EarlyBirds platform as an Innovator at https://earlybirds.io/en/innovator."

Open innovation ecosystem EarlyBirds is the ideal partner to assist both early adopters and innovators to understand and address the challenges associated with green electrons, molecules, and bits needed for a seamless green energy transition. EarlyBirds can help early adopters by breaking down the energy transition market into core themes across the topics of electricity, fuel, and the needed digitization. The unique and practical EarlyBirds innovation maps are created based on any one of these topics and then dynamically populated with data from its award-winning platform.

EarlyBirds’ Explorer Program is designed for businesses that need innovation as a service to supplement existing innovation programs or to conduct innovation projects as required. The Challenger Program is designed to solve one business or technical challenge at a time and search for relevant innovators that meet the business, technical, commercial, and business risk requirements.

The team at EarlyBirds is eager to talk to energy industry leaders and policymakers about their energy transition plans across any of the relevant areas. The open innovation ecosystem also invites those with the power and willingness to make a change to sign up for its platform as Early Adopters by visiting https://earlybirds.io/en/early_adopter.