A New Approach To Infrastructure Financing

According to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the international community, the achievement of most of the goals involves a significant volume of investment in infrastructure. This is the case for energy, mobility, the city, water, and the fight against climate change.

According to aUNCTAD report, the needed funds are estimated at 4.5 trillion USD/year by 2030. These infrastructures will be of a new type: they will be connected, relatively small and probably financed differently.

For us manufacturers, this constitutes a challenge: seizing these opportunities by finding new business models. In the field of energy, this is evident. For example, electricity systems were traditionally designed based on large centralised production units which injected electricity into transmission networks, then distribution networks, to finally reach the points of consumption.

The current energy revolution has generated irreversible, profound, and rapid changes. Two characteristics clearly illustrate the nature of this "revolution": the rise of renewable energies and digitisation.

Renewable Energy Production Units

Renewable electricity production, particularly solar, is now better distributed across the territory; the production unit's size no longer has any real economic interest since it can be on the scale of a house or even a mobile phone. Primary…