Decarbonisation Technology May 2026 Issue

control centres that coordinate production, energy use, and safety from a single console. Concurrent engineering tools can reduce start- up hours by up to 40%, delivering projects faster and at lower cost ( ABB, 2025 ). Efficiency is no longer about marginal gains in isolated processes. It is about alignment across entire operations. Connecting automation,

Figure 3 Advances in AI and digital twin technology are moving us toward autonomous industrial operations

safety, electrical, and digital systems creates compounding efficiencies that grow stronger as operations become more integrated. Embedded efficiency The global effort to decarbonise is sometimes framed in binary terms: old versus new or disruption versus transition. The reality is more complex. Energy demand is rising, not reducing. Existing assets must be enhanced to run as efficiently as possible. And new technologies or energy sources must scale rapidly to make a measurable difference. This is why automation is not a side note in the transition. It is the true enabler. By embedding efficiency at the core of operations, automation makes decarbonisation both achievable and economically viable. For example, in Abu Dhabi, ABB automation underpins the world’s largest single-site solar plant, Al Dhafra PV2, which supplies the grid with renewable electricity. Automation makes renewables or new energy technologies work reliably at scale, while also helping decarbonise industries that modern society relies on. For operators, the ability to demonstrate efficiency gains, emissions reductions, and safe performance is becoming essential to secure permits, attract investment, and earn public trust. Long-term reliability Automation also makes it possible to pursue decarbonisation without compromising safety or reliability. In industries where downtime

and extended. This human factor is critical for keeping complex operations safe. The result is a clear, risk-managed path forward. Companies – and the people who lead them – cannot afford obsolescence or downtime. Automation designed for continuity helps avoid both. Integration at scale In previous years, efficiency was about fine- tuning: trimming fuel consumption, reducing downtime hours, or squeezing incremental gains from individual lines. Today, efficiency means something different. It means integration. By unifying people, processes and assets into a connected ecosystem, automation creates efficiencies that multiply across operations. Instead of siloed teams and disparate systems, operators, engineers, and maintenance staff can work from a single operational view, collaborating in real time with contextualised data. In Germany, a leading life sciences company used modular automation during time-to- market, which enabled the production of smaller batch sizes when needed, and significantly boosted flexibility in production. What was once a linear process became agile and responsive. In Poland, a major chemicals producer boosted polyamide output by 80,000 tons a year by unifying manufacturing and transport lines on a single platform. Simplification reduced risk while increasing output with the same resources. True efficiency comes from integration at scale. Offshore wind farms now operate unified