The energy transition’s next big challenge is systems integration

For much of the past decade, the energy transition debate has largely revolved around one question: can clean technologies work at scale?

That is increasingly being answered. Solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) have moved into the mainstream as key technologies become more cost-effective, efficient and faster to deploy. In many markets, these energy sources are no longer the future of energy; they are the present.

The challenge is no longer simply proving that more individual technologies work. It is integrating these technologies across sectors into power and industrial systems that remain reliable, affordable and secure while serving rapidly growing global demand.

This shift marks a new phase of maturity in the energy transition, where system design matters as much as technological innovation. That evolution continues to unfold in three overlapping waves.

The first wave was about feasibility through scale. Over the past decade, manufacturing and deployment have driven dramatic cost reductions in a handful of core technologies. Nowhere is this clearer than in China. Its expansion of solar, wind, batteries and EVs turned once-premium options into accessible and affordable mass-manufactured products. As scale increased, prices fell, supply chains matured and learning curves accelerated. The result was not just lower emissions, but a redefinition of what affordable energy looks like.

This mattered far beyond China. Cheaper solar panels reshaped power markets across the world. Battery cost declines unlocked electric mobility across income levels. What was once an environmental choice became an economic one. The first wave showed decarbonisation could align with economic growth.

South China Morning Post