Energy and intelligence converge at Adipec 2025

Flexible power generation is required to meet rising demand

By Christopher Hudson, president of DMG Events

In a world increasingly shaped by the accelerating use of AI, economic development, urbanisation and industrialisation, energy demand is rising to unprecedented levels, requiring pragmatic approaches that embrace all viable solutions.

The global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. Currently more than 750 million people still lack access to electricity and more than 2.1 billion remain without access to clean cooking. Closing that gap as the global population grows will only further increase electricity demand.

As the population increases, so too does the reliance on data centres. Today, data centres account for about 1.5 per cent of global electricity and by 2030 that is expected to more than double.

Given these and many other data points, there is no doubt that energy consumption is on an upwards trajectory. According to the International Energy Agency, global energy demand rose by 2.2 per cent last year, outpacing the average annual increase of 1.3 per cent recorded over the last decade.

While renewable energy sources have helped meet a good amount of this increase, their intermittency, supply limitations, and storage and transport issues mean that they are not yet mature enough to meet all energy demand. That is why conventional sources of energy – particularly oil, natural gas and nuclear energy – will remain critical to meeting energy demand while transitioning to a low-carbon future. This means embracing a strategy of energy addition, where our growing need for secure energy supply is met both by hydrocarbon energy and additional lower-carbon energy sources. Intelligently using all available resources in this way can enable the delicate balance between our collective needs for security, development, innovation and sustainability.

To ensure the global energy system has the resilience required to see us through this next phase of development, a collaborative and inclusive approach that spans borders, sectors and disciplines is needed to enable the efficient production, transportation and use of all types of energy. For this, the industry requires greater co-operation between governments, investors and producers. It needs to build an ecosystem where policies, regulations and business interests are all focused on a common goal: to create energy systems that are more resilient and more reliable than ever.

With such technical, complex and interconnected requirements for the next phase of energy transformation, the world needs a global energy event that can convene the right players to move the needle forward on sustainable and secure energy diversification. Adipec 2025 aims to be just that, convening the entire energy spectrum under the banner ‘Energy. Intelligence. Impact.’ to build resilience in today’s systems and scale intelligent solutions to transform our energy system to be able to meet our growing energy demands. Further enhancing Adipec’s vital role in advancing energy progress is its unwavering commitment to energy diversity and intelligent systems. Rather than chasing a single solution, Adipec supports a spectrum of viable energy sources – from clean hydrogen and renewables to nuclear and natural gas – all backed by the smartest digital infrastructure available. Whether it is small modular reactors powering data centres or AI-enabled grid resilience, Adipec helps transform bold visions into scalable realities.

Through intelligent systems, adaptive policies and cross-sector collaboration, Adipec will help ensure that no energy source is left behind and no solution is overlooked. In a world that needs more and better energy, Adipec is charting a course where abundance meets efficiency, ensuring the world thrive through every transformation ahead.

The grid needs a brain and right now is the time to build it

By Dr Najwa Aaraj, chief executive of Technology Innovation Institute

The energy sector is undergoing a profound transformation. The focus is no longer just on fuels and electrons – intelligence is now a critical layer of infrastructure, and AI is the tech embedding it into the system.

If the last century was built on steel and concrete, the next will be built on silicon and software. AI is already forecasting renewable output, detecting equipment faults before outages, and optimising energy use in buildings and factories. Even EV chargers are evolving into smart systems that align charging with grid needs and renewable availability.

Yet the challenge is growing. Millions of new devices – solar panels, batteries and EVs – are connecting to ageing grids never designed for two-way flows. Climate volatility and rising demand are straining systems. Traditional optimisation methods can’t keep up. What’s needed now is a cognitive layer: intelligence embedded across the energy network to adapt and optimise in real time.

This transformation requires three breakthroughs: edge autonomy, predictive intelligence and system cohesion.

At the grid’s edge – where energy is generated and consumed – decisions must be made in milliseconds. Smart chips in substations, inverters and meters can enable ultra-fast, low-power computing, unlocking true autonomy at the point of use.

Beyond local control, AI must span entire networks. It can model thousands of variables – demand surges, weather, market shifts – and recommend optimal actions. This shift from reactive to predictive operations boosts reliability and integration.

But intelligence only works if systems can communicate. Today’s energy landscape is fragmented. Devices and platforms often operate in isolation. The final layer is cohesion: shared frameworks, secure protocols and interoperable standards that allow the ecosystem to function.

Events like Adipec 2025 are vital to turning ambition into action. The grid needs a brain. Now is the time to build it.

Chemical industry plays central role in energy transition

By Charlie Tan, chief executive of Global Impact Coalition

The global energy system is under chronic stress. Geopolitical shocks, climate extremes and price volatility have made energy security a daily operational risk. While efficiency gains and supplier diversification offer short-term relief, they fall short of closing the resilience gap. True security demands strategic disruption – a shift in how companies design assets, structure markets and define value.

No single company can lead this transformation alone. The Global Impact Coalition unites leading chemical companies – including BASF, Sabic, Covestro and others – representing more than $350 billion in combined revenue. Through shared investment and technical collaboration, GIC accelerates the industry’s low-carbon transition, proving that complex sustainability challenges require collective action.

As the largest industrial energy user, the chemical industry plays a central role in the energy transition. It supplies essential materials – from composites in wind blades to encapsulants in solar modules – that enable clean energy deployment.

Chemicals also support emerging technologies: membranes for hydrogen electrolysis, binders for batteries and lightweight resins for efficient transport.

Yet conventional approaches have limits. Supplier diversification and inventory buffers don’t address structural exposure to volatile feedstocks or regulatory shifts. The next phase of resilience will be led by companies willing to disrupt.

First, GIC members are building feedstock and product optionality. Flexible plants that run on natural gas today and evolve towards biomethane, renewable hydrogen or captured carbon tomorrow reduce exposure to any single commodity and unlock access to premium low-carbon markets.

Ammonia and methanol are central to this, moving hydrogen in forms easier to store and transport. When petrol prices surge, producers with feedstock flexibility can pivot output or emphasise lower-carbon product lines, protecting margins and supply relationships.

Second is the shift from tonnes to outcomes. Selling olefins or methanol by the tonne is important, but competitive advantage is moving to performance: verified low carbon-intensity molecules with offtakes for customers.

Third, GIC anchors system partnerships. Markets must be co-created by chemical producers, utilities, shipowners, ports, technology firms and financiers, as each impacts its function. The International Maritime Organisation’s 2023 strategy set a new ambition for zero or near-zero GHG energy uptake by 2030, and the EU’s FuelEU Maritime imposes tighter fuel-intensity limits from this year. These strategies accelerate demand for low-carbon fuels like green methanol, rewarding suppliers who deliver certified volumes at bunkering centres.

Finally, GIC members are hardwiring digital and physical resilience. Predictive maintenance, real-time energy optimisation, on-site renewables, waste-heat recovery and storage are no longer optional. Availability and emissions performance are strategic differentiators, core to cost and uptime.

GIC members are translating strategy into scalable business models. The Automotive Plastics Circularity Pilot is reinventing vehicle plastic recycling. Two initiatives are the methanol-to-olefins project for low-carbon fuels, and a partnership with ETH Zurich advancing waste-to-chemicals gasification.

Events like Adipec, with its dedicated Low Carbon and Chemicals Expo, are vital to turning ambition into action. Industry leaders are calling for standards on product carbon intensity, bankable frameworks for new molecules and strong demand signals for green corridors.

Energy security is a proactive strategy. GIC members are pooling resources, forging cross-sector partnerships and embedding resilience. Strategic disruption is no longer optional. It’s how we build systems that bend without breaking – and make the impossible achievable.

Global South increasingly committed to clean energy push

Scripting a cleaner future across emerging markets

The proliferation of clean energy in emerging economies could help meet soaring demand and ease the reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

Emerging markets are home to an estimated 775 million people who lack access to electricity, and 2.4 billion people without clean cooking fuels, according to a 2023 IFC report, necessitating the building of modern, cost-effective energy systems based on clean technology.

A transition is already under way, as emerging market players join meaningful energy conversations on the global stage.

About 87 per cent of spending on electricity generation across the Global South flowed into clean energy last year, an RMI report found.

Solar and wind generation has grown 23 per cent annually for the past five years, generating 9 per cent of all electricity in the developing world.

“The global economy, including emerging markets, is moving into a new energy security age, including reliance on a broad energy mix inclusive of oil and gas alongside renewables like solar and wind, and ideally nuclear energy,” said Tristan Attenborough, managing director, global head of Natural Resources Group and head of global advisory at JP Morgan Payments.

“As part of this shift, the main driver of energy geopolitics in the coming decades will be defined not by tension between fossil fuels and renewables, but by all countries searching for new ways of being energy independent and less exposed to fossil fuel price volatility.”

Many emerging markets benefit from favourable climates and ample space, providing good conditions to scale renewable energy projects, especially solar.

“In some countries, this shift is supported by more progressive policies and committed planning, which aim to help overcome challenges around grid infrastructure and transmission needs,” Mr Attenborough said.

Countries such as the UAE have emerged as critical energy partners in regions such as Africa, which houses a theoretical clean energy capacity of 850 terawatts in solar and wind.

At the forefront of the country’s renewable energy drive are companies such as Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and Dubai-based Amea Power. Masdar has committed $10 billion to deliver 10 gigawatts of clean energy capacity in Africa by 2030.

It has also developed the largest wind farm in Central Asia and signed an agreement for a 2 gigawatt solar project in Saudi Arabia.

Amea Power’s portfolio of projects includes Africa’s largest wind power plant – in Egypt – and a 50 megawatt solar project in the Ivory Coast.

“The UAE is indeed proactive through companies like Masdar in building renewable energy capacity across emerging markets,” Mr Attenborough said.

“It’s important to consider that installing renewable energy generation is only one half of the coin. Adequate transmission, transformers and connections to both domestic and cross-border grids are also essential.

Countries like the UAE, with progressive and committed policy and planning that encompasses both aspects of energy production are making most significant progress here.

“When this encompassing approach is taken, emerging markets can become places where the energy-intensive needs of developed markets are located, especially those with increasing numbers of high energy-consuming data centres.”

Adipec is hosting a contingent of dedicated country pavilions this year – more than half from emerging economies – to amplify the crucial role of dialogue and collaboration in advancing inclusive progress.

Women are rising stars in modern global energy sector

Inclusivity will bring grit and grace to the energy space

The changing global economic landscape has not only propelled the shift from coal to clean energy, but also ushered in a gender rebalance in the corridors of power. As the world races towards a cleaner, equitable future, it is also undergoing a transition in boardrooms, with women increasingly taking up critical decision-making roles.

“Women are an essential force in the modern energy workforce, not because of quotas or optics, but because their talent delivers results,” said Molly Determan, president of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council.

“Today, women are leading major projects, advancing technology, driving operational improvements, and shaping strategy at every level of the industry. You’ll find women running assets, directing field operations, innovating in engineering and digital roles, and occupying seats in the C-suite, because they’ve earned them.”

There is still much ground to cover. Women remain underrepresented in the energy sector, with only a 17.3 per cent share of senior leadership positions in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency.

Similarly, women comprise only a quarter of the workforce in energy companies in the EU, meaning 200,000 more women will need to join the sector by 2050 to attain gender balance, according to a report from the bloc last year. The renewable energy sector is comparatively inclusive, with women holding 32 per cent of full-time jobs, according to analysis by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

However, although women occupy a higher share of the workforce in renewables than in oil and gas (23 per cent) or nuclear energy (25 per cent), the sector still trails the global average of 43.4 per cent.

“Women’s representation in renewable energy is uneven across job categories. Jobs held by women are highly concentrated in administrative roles, which account for 45 per cent of female employment in the sector, and in non-Stem technical positions such as legal roles, where they make up 36 per cent. By contrast, women comprise only 28 per cent of Stem-related roles, and just 22 per cent of medium-skilled jobs such as solar installation and construction,” Irena said.

“Progress will come from focusing on opportunity and performance not box-checking,” Ms Determan said. “To attract and retain high-performing women, the industry must provide clear career progression, meaningful leadership opportunities and modern workplace policies that reflect how people actually work today.

“Expanding the talent pool and empowering the best people to lead, including women, is what will keep our industry resilient and ahead of global demand.”