The global surge in energy demand in 2024 has not only underscored the urgency of sustainability but also highlighted the critical role technology must play in shaping the future of clean energy investment. From AI-driven grid optimisation to advancements in carbon capture and storage, emerging technologies are fast becoming central to global energy transition strategies.
Demand for energy worldwide surged dramatically in 2024, according to official figures from the International Energy Association (IEA). This growth is prompting investors and innovators alike to turn their attention to energy tech solutions that can enhance efficiency, reduce emissions, and enable scalable, clean power generation.
Indeed, global energy demand was up by 2.2 per cent last year, which equates to an annual growth rate almost double that seen on average per year between 2013 and 2023. Demand for electricity, specifically, increased particularly sharply in 2024, with emerging and developing economies accounting for around 80 per cent of the world’s extra energy demand.
The IEA has noted that new supplies of renewables and natural gas were enough to cover the extra demand for energy that arose over the course of 2024. Nevertheless, with individual nations generally aiming to reduce their carbon emissions and head towards ‘net zero’ over the next few decades, there remains plenty of work to be done to help make the global economy more sustainable.
Against that backdrop, and with the ongoing explosion of AI use worldwide likely adding further to global energy demands, there is a growing emphasis on clean energy tech innovation.
Indeed, as Ovik Mkrtchyan, founder of Gor Investment Limited, has suggested, clean energy tech investment flows look certain to swell in response to the demand dynamics playing out across continents.
“The world clearly needs access to more energy, particularly electricity, and most countries want to limit or reduce their carbon emissions and their environmental damage at the same time if they can,” notes Ovik Mkrtchyan, who himself has a strong track record of bringing together sustainable innovation and financial support.
“That suggests logically that investments will continue to flow consistently into tech innovation that can potentially have an impact on making energy production and supply cleaner and more sustainable.”
Recent evidence supports Ovik Mkrtchyan’s perspective, with an unprecedented US$2.1 trillion worth of capital investment having been channelled towards the global energy transition in 2024. That’s according to data from BloombergNEF, whose annual review of global investment into the energy transition cited an 11 per cent increase in spending last year alone.
Areas of particular focus for investors currently include forms of renewable energy, inevitably, as well as tech-driven innovation around, for example, carbon capture and smart new forms of energy storage. Growing emphasis from investors is falling too on the electrification of transport systems and transitions to clean energy across entire industries and power grids.
There is hope and some early evidence too that while the growing use of AI tools is clearly adding to global energy demands – because they rely so heavily on data centre support – those same tools might also be able to make positive contributions to clean energy transitions and associated innovations.
Ovik Mkrtchyan, as an experienced entrepreneur and investor, particularly known for connecting capital with purposeful projects in sustainability, public health, and infrastructure development. He has supported clean energy and ESG-aligned initiatives across both established and emerging markets, especially in Europe and Central Asia.
He is convinced that the global transition to clean energy has entered a mature phase that foregrounds large-scale deployments of proven technology. “In a sense, what the world needs to become cleaner and greener in these contexts is now well understood – infrastructure needs to be upgraded and made smarter, while power generation processes need to become much less reliant on fossil fuels,” he says.
“We know that the scale of investments being allocated towards renewables innovation and low-carbon technologies already overshadows those backing non-renewable energy by almost two to one, and that’s a trend I firmly expect to see persist as we head towards the 2030s and beyond.”
Investment funds that emphasise the performance of their assets from an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) perspective – as well as purely a financial one – have emerged to at least some degree of prominence globally in recent years. Sustainability and the clean energy transition are integral to the ongoing evolution of the associated markets, with European countries leading the way.
According to Morningstar, sustainable fund assets were worth some US$3.2 trillion at the end of 2024, which represented an 8 per cent increase as compared with the previous year and a quadrupling since 2018.
Strikingly, Europe was home to 80 per cent of all sustainable assets worldwide last year, with the region’s regulatory environment encouraging ever greater ‘greenness’ and transparency seen as the key reason why ESG funds are proving so reliably popular across the continent.
“There are clearly some stiff macroeconomic headwinds in evidence currently but ESG funds have a robust potential to deliver strong returns while also helping support sustainable investment,” adds Ovik Mkrtchyan.
“With energy demand rising, in advanced as well as developing economies worldwide, there is evidently a need for funding to continue flowing towards clean and green energy tech innovation, and I think we’ll see that happening.”
Despite trillions of dollars now being poured annually into projects focussed on clean energy transitions, the scale of that investment needs to expand much further if economies in Europe and worldwide are to be successfully decarbonised over the next few decades.
On that point, the IEA and BloombergNEF concur, with the latter estimating that investments into clean energy need to be worth close to US$5.6 trillion annually by 2030, if Paris Agreement targets on net zero are to be met.
With energy demands rising and net zero targets looming, clean energy tech investment growth might not be inevitable, but it is certainly an arena with enormous promise and potential from all perspectives.
Indeed, for tech innovators focussed on sustainability, the opportunities to have a major and lasting impact on the world – and to attract strong financial backing along the way – are clearly in evidence and only likely to grow stronger in the years ahead.