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Industrial Clusters Identified as Key to Scaling Clean Energy Infrastructure

A recent white paper by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture and EPRI, emphasizes the pivotal role of industrial clusters in accelerating the deployment of clean energy infrastructure. These clusters—geographic concentrations of interconnected industries—offer economies of scale, shared resources, and opportunities for collaboration, making them ideal hubs for clean energy production, distribution, and use.

The report identifies major challenges, including the high cost of clean fuels (green premium), fragmented demand and supply signals, limited access to clean power, inconsistent standards, and governance hurdles. To overcome these, it recommends three strategic actions.

First, establishing a common vision through strong cluster governance, public-private collaboration, and a digital backbone is essential for effective decision-making and trust-building. Second, scaling initiatives quickly by coordinating stakeholders across sectors like heavy industry and logistics, aggregating demand, and innovating financing models is crucial. Third, strengthening cross-cluster collaboration and building global networks can enhance knowledge exchange and enable clean energy transfer between regions.

The paper urges leaders across sectors to support cluster-based approaches, enhance cooperation, and connect clusters into a global clean energy network. Doing so will help scale clean energy infrastructure efficiently while supporting industrial decarbonization.