Global technology group Wärtsilä has released a new documentary, The heartbeat of our societies: Transitioning towards a clean energy future, highlighting the vital role of balancing technologies in achieving a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future. The film showcases Wärtsilä’s flexible balancing engine power and energy storage solutions as key factors in integrating renewable energy sources and reaching decarbonisation goals.

The heartbeat of our societies: Transitioning towards a clean energy future underscores the urgent need for affordable, sustainable and consistently available energy globally, especially following recent energy crises and blackouts that emphasised the importance of resilient power systems. The documentary explores energy’s fundamental role, from daily life to advanced digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, all requiring increasingly clean electricity.

A central theme of the short documentary film is the crucial necessity of balancing technologies within the energy mix. While renewables like solar and wind offer the lowest cost of electricity ever seen, their intermittency demands robust support for continuous supply. The film features Wärtsilä’s fast-starting engine power plants and energy storage solutions, which are vital for grid stability and reliability, providing power 24/7, 365 days a year.

Evidence from Wärtsilä’s global power system modelling demonstrates that an optimal blend of renewables, engine power plants and energy storage leads to significant cost savings and faster CO2 reductions compared to a renewables-only approach. This holistic strategy creates a low-cost, low-emission, highly efficient, and highly flexible power system. These power systems are critical to driving the energy transition.

Håkan Agnevall, President and CEO of Wärtsilä, states, “The challenges we are facing now and going forward are probably some of the most important and biggest we’ve ever faced. However, the technologies we need to overcome these are already there and Wärtsilä, with its 190-year history, is positioned as a forward-looking partner offering future-proof solutions to accelerate the journey to a decarbonised energy future.”

The heartbeat of our societies: Transitioning towards a clean energy future delivers an optimistic message: a 100% renewable, reliable, and affordable energy future is within reach. The energy transition relies on scaling renewables, integrating balancing solutions, phasing out legacy power systems, and embracing sustainable, carbon-neutral, and zero-carbon fuels for flexible balancing engines. The documentary serves as a powerful call to action, reminding viewers that the energy transition is an accelerating reality.

Discover the full documentary and explore how Wärtsilä is shaping the future of energy on their Energy Transition page. For more information, visit Wärtsilä’s Engine Power Plants page, Energy Storage page, and Crossroads to Net Zero report on balancing technologies.