Renewables are now the cheapest source of new electricity generation in most regions, yet power systems continue to struggle with reliability, access, and equity. That gap between falling technology costs and uneven system performance is the central tension addressed in IRENA’s latest Innovation Landscape report, released during a ministerial dialogue on artificial intelligence at the agency’s annual Assembly.
The report argues that the energy transition is being constrained less by hardware availability than by fragmented policy, market design, and system operation, and that only systemic innovation can align these elements into functioning energy systems.
Rather than presenting a single technological fix, the report identifies 40 innovations spanning digitalization, artificial intelligence, grid modernization, decentralized energy solutions, and business model design. IRENA’s assessment is explicit that transformation occurs only when these technologies are deployed alongside regulatory reform, updated market structures, and new approaches to ownership and operation. In practice, this reframes the transition challenge from scaling renewables to reengineering how power systems are planned, financed, and governed.
Artificial intelligence and digital tools feature prominently, but not as standalone solutions. The report positions AI as an enabler of smarter system operation, particularly in grids absorbing higher shares of variable renewables. Dynamic line rating, for example, is already increasing effective transmission capacity by 10 to 50 percent in Malaysia by using real time weather data to optimize line loading. This type of system level optimization delivers capacity gains faster and often at lower cost than building new transmission, highlighting how software driven innovation can unlock latent infrastructure value.
Grid modernization is only one dimension of the innovation landscape. IRENA places equal weight on decentralized and off grid solutions, particularly in emerging markets where centralized expansion remains slow or capital constrained. Pay as you go solar business models have already brought electricity access to more than 500,000 people in Sierra Leone and Liberia, demonstrating how financial innovation can be as decisive as technical performance. Similarly, battery swapping networks in Uganda and Rwanda are lowering the upfront cost barrier for electric mobility, aligning transport electrification with local income structures.
The report also emphasizes that innovation outcomes are highly context specific. Energy communities in Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia, and Malaysia illustrate how local ownership models can improve project acceptance and economic distribution, while regional power pools in West Africa show how cross border coordination allows 15 countries to share renewable resources and balance variability more efficiently. These examples reinforce IRENA’s conclusion that there is no universal blueprint for transition, only adaptable frameworks that must be tailored to national and regional conditions.
To translate these insights into policy action, the report groups the 40 innovations into four strategic toolkits focused on grid modernization, decentralized solutions, inclusive local development, and energy access. This structure is intended to help policymakers move beyond pilot projects toward integrated strategies that reflect technical constraints, economic realities, and social priorities. The emphasis on toolkits rather than prescriptions reflects a recognition that optimal solutions depend on factors such as resource endowments, grid maturity, end use demand profiles, and cultural context.
IRENA Director General Francesco La Camera framed the findings as a challenge of political and institutional will rather than technological readiness, arguing that the question is no longer whether energy systems can be transformed, but whether governments will pursue the transition in a way that delivers resilience and social justice. The report implicitly supports this view by showing that many of the identified innovations are already deployed at scale somewhere in the world, but remain siloed rather than systemically integrated.
