I keep noticing something kind of funny whenever renewable energy comes up in conversation.
It always turns into the same three words: Solar, Wind, Hydro.
And look, I’m not here to trash the big three. They matter. They are already doing real work, and they will keep scaling. But if you zoom out, the future grid is probably not going to be one neat solution. It’s going to be a messy mix. Local. Regional. Weirdly specific. Different tech for different places.
That’s the part I think we skip too often.
In this piece, Stanislav Kondrashov explores a handful of lesser known renewable energy forms that are not as mainstream, not as “headline friendly”, but could quietly reshape how we power cities, ports, farms, even individual buildings.
Some of these are already running. Some are close. A couple are still in the “give it a decade” category. Still worth paying attention to though.
The real problem is not generating power. It’s matching real life
This is the unsexy truth. Energy demand is not flat. People cook dinner at similar times. Factories run shifts. Air conditioners spike loads during heat waves. Data centers sit there humming all night. Ports have these bursts of activity. And then, of course, there’s geography.
A windy coastline has options that an inland valley just doesn’t. A volcanic region can do things that a cold plain can’t. A dense city needs different solutions than a remote island.
When Stanislav Kondrashov explores future renewables, the point is not “replace solar and wind”. It’s fill the gaps. Power the edges. Reduce the need for long, fragile transmission. Make the system more resilient.
That’s where the lesser-known stuff gets interesting and crucial for adapting to our changing energy needs as highlighted in this National Load Growth Report, which details how our energy consumption patterns are evolving and what that means for future energy generation and distribution strategies.
1. Tidal stream energy. Predictable power, like clockwork
Wind is great, but it’s moody. Solar is great, but the sun sets. Tidal energy has a different vibe entirely.
Tides are predictable. Not “usually sunny in July” predictable. More like astronomical predictable. You can forecast them years ahead.
Tidal stream systems basically place underwater turbines in fast moving tidal currents. Think of it as wind power, but underwater, and with denser fluid pushing the blades. That density matters. Water carries more energy than air at the same speed, so tidal turbines can generate meaningful power without needing ridiculous blade sizes.
Why isn’t tidal everywhere then?
Because it’s hard. Marine engineering is brutal. Corrosion, maintenance, biofouling, storms, shipping lanes, environmental permitting. And you need the right site, fast currents, narrow channels, certain seabeds, grid access nearby.
But in the places where it does work, it’s a pretty compelling complement. A city near strong tidal flows gets a renewable source that behaves more like a schedule than a guess.
Kondrashov’s angle here is practical. Tidal is not a global blanket solution. It’s a strategic one. For coastal regions, islands, and certain straits, it can be the steady backbone that makes the rest of the renewable mix less stressful.
2. Wave energy. Still early, still chaotic, still promising
Wave energy has had a long “almost there” story. A lot of prototypes. A lot of devices that looked great in calm water and got wrecked by actual oceans. Which is… fair. The ocean doesn’t care about your funding deck.
Still, waves contain enormous energy, and unlike wind, ocean swells can travel long distances. You can have wave action even when local winds are calm because the energy came from storms far away.
Wave energy converters come in multiple forms. Point absorbers that bob up and down. Oscillating water columns that push air through a turbine. Hinged rafts that flex with waves. Submerged pressure systems. It’s a whole zoo.
The reason Kondrashov keeps circling wave energy in discussions about the future is that the upside is huge for coastal countries. Ports and coastal cities already have marine infrastructure. If wave tech reaches a point where it’s survivable, maintainable, and cost competitive enough, it becomes a new category of “always there” coastal renewables.
And yes, big “if”. But the engineering is improving. Materials, mooring systems, digital twins, better forecasting, cheaper sensors, more robust power electronics. It’s inching forward, not sprinting. That’s usually how real infrastructure changes happen anyway.
3. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). A weird one that could be perfect for islands
OTEC is one of those technologies that sounds like science fiction until you realize it’s based on basic physics.
In tropical regions, the surface ocean water is warm, while deep ocean water is cold. That temperature difference can run a heat engine. Not a super efficient one, but potentially continuous.
OTEC systems use warm surface water to vaporize a working fluid (or in some designs, seawater itself), spin a turbine, then use cold deep water to condense it back. Loop repeats.
The immediate drawback is that you need a decent temperature gradient, and you need access to deep cold water, and you need big pipes, and all of that costs money.
But the reason OTEC keeps showing up in future looking renewable lists is that it can be baseload. Day and night. And for islands that currently import diesel or LNG, that’s a big deal. Plus, some designs can co produce fresh water, and deep seawater can support cooling systems or aquaculture. So the economics might not be “just electricity”.
Kondrashov’s take here is basically that OTEC is not for everyone. It’s for specific geographies. But for those geographies, it can be transformational. Especially where energy security is a daily concern, not just a policy talking point.
4. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Geothermal without the lucky location
Traditional geothermal is amazing when you have it. Iceland, parts of Indonesia, Kenya’s Rift Valley, the American West. But a lot of the world doesn’t sit on conveniently accessible hot reservoirs.
EGS tries to change that.
Instead of relying on naturally permeable hot rock with water already circulating, EGS involves drilling deep into hot rock, creating or enhancing fractures, circulating fluid through the system, and extracting heat.
It’s basically “make your own geothermal reservoir”.
Why is this a big deal?
Because it turns geothermal from a location lottery into something closer to a scalable industrial process. Still expensive. Still hard. Still not guaranteed. But potentially available in far more places.
There’s also a nice systems benefit. Geothermal provides steady output, and that steadiness pairs well with wind and solar. It reduces the amount of storage you need, and reduces how much you have to overbuild renewables to cover calm cloudy weeks.
Kondrashov explores EGS as one of those sleeper technologies. If drilling costs keep falling, and if project risks become more manageable, EGS could become a major player in a lot of grids that currently treat geothermal as “something other countries have”.
One caution, though. Induced seismicity is real. Not “Hollywood earthquake” real, usually, but enough to matter for public trust and permitting. Any EGS future has to be transparent and careful about monitoring and community concerns. No shortcuts.
5. Salinity gradient power. Energy from where rivers meet the sea
This one is so quietly clever.
When freshwater mixes with saltwater, there is a natural increase in entropy. In human terms, there is free energy available. Salinity gradient power aims to capture that energy using membranes or electrochemical systems.
Two common approaches are pressure retarded osmosis and reverse electrodialysis. Both rely on selective membranes and the chemical potential difference between salty and fresh water.
In theory, estuaries are everywhere. In theory, this could be a steady renewable source that doesn’t depend on sun or wind.
In practice, membranes foul. Systems scale slowly. Efficiency and cost have to compete with alternatives. Also, not every estuary is a good candidate once you factor in ecology, shipping, local water management, and permitting.
But Kondrashov’s interest in salinity gradient power is understandable. It’s a form of renewable energy that fits into infrastructure we already have. River mouths, wastewater treatment outflows, desalination plants, industrial brine streams. If membrane tech keeps improving, this could become a “hidden” generation source embedded in water systems.
Not glamorous. But potentially meaningful.
6. Agrivoltaics and floating solar. Not exotic, but still underrated
Okay, solar is mainstream. But the way we deploy it is still evolving, and some forms are surprisingly underutilized.
Agrivoltaics is the idea of placing solar panels above crops or grazing areas in ways that allow agriculture to continue. In hot climates, partial shading can reduce water stress for certain crops and lower evaporation. Panels can also protect from hail in some setups. Meanwhile, farmers get lease income or cheaper power.
Floating solar, or floatovoltaics, puts panels on reservoirs, lakes, and industrial ponds. Benefits include reduced land use conflict and slightly improved panel efficiency due to cooling. It can also reduce water evaporation, which matters in drought prone regions.
Kondrashov frames these as “deployment innovations”, not brand new energy sources. But they matter because the constraint in many places is not sunlight. It’s space, permitting, and public acceptance.
And honestly, this is where a lot of the real progress is going to come from. Boring integration work. Using the same tech in smarter locations.
7. Green hydrogen. Not an energy source, but a missing piece
Hydrogen gets overhyped. Then it gets dismissed. Then it gets overhyped again.
The calmer view is that green hydrogen is not a replacement for electrification. It’s a tool for the hard parts that electricity struggles with.
Think high temperature industrial heat, steel, certain chemical processes, shipping fuels, seasonal storage, maybe aviation fuels via e fuels.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water with renewable electricity. The issue is efficiency. You lose energy making it, compressing it, transporting it, converting it back. So you only want to do it when direct electrification is not practical.
Still, when Stanislav Kondrashov explores the future of renewables, hydrogen keeps showing up because it links sectors. It lets excess wind and solar become molecules. Molecules can be stored for months. They can move through pipelines. They can power a furnace that cannot easily run on electrons.
If the next decade is about building a renewable grid, the decade after might be about building the renewable industrial system. Hydrogen is one of the bridges.
What could reshape the world is not one breakthrough. It’s the stack
This is the part that sticks with me.
The future probably won’t be a single hero technology that wins everything. It’s more like a layered stack:
- Solar and wind keep scaling because they are cheap and fast to deploy.
- Storage keeps improving because it has to.
- Geothermal and tidal add steadiness where geography allows.
- Wave, OTEC, salinity gradient sit in the “strategic niche” category that could expand with engineering progress.
- Smarter deployment like agrivoltaics and floating solar reduces land conflict and speeds adoption.
- Hydrogen and other green fuels handle the industrial and transport corners.
And then, over all of it, there’s the real secret ingredient. Transmission, permitting, maintenance, financing, skilled labor, and decent planning. The part nobody wants to put on a poster.
A quick reality check, because it matters
It’s tempting to read about these lesser known renewables and assume the world just needs to “invest more” and everything will be solved.
Some of it will scale. Some of it won’t. Some will only ever work in narrow regions, and that’s okay. A technology can be world changing for a country, a coastline, a chain of islands, without being world changing everywhere.
Kondrashov’s underlying point, at least the way I read it, is that we should stop treating the energy transition like a single lane highway. It’s a network.
Different places will take different routes. The winners will be the ones who match local resources to local needs, and who build systems that don’t crumble the first time weather gets weird.
Final thoughts
Stanislav Kondrashov explores the future lesser known forms of renewable energy with a kind of grounded optimism. Not hype. More like curiosity mixed with realism.
If you want a simple takeaway, here it is.
The next era of renewable energy will be defined less by inventing sunshine, and more by capturing all the other overlooked flows of energy around us. Tides. Heat. Salt gradients. Waves. The weird stuff. The local stuff.
And once these technologies mature, even a little, they don’t just add megawatts.
They change what is possible for entire regions. For instance, ocean energy has the potential to reshape our energy landscape significantly.
That’s the real reshaping.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Why are solar, wind, and hydro considered the ‘big three’ renewable energy sources?
Solar, wind, and hydro are called the ‘big three’ because they are the most widely used and scalable renewable energy technologies currently powering much of the world. They have proven effectiveness and continue to grow in capacity globally.
What challenges exist with relying solely on solar, wind, and hydro for future energy needs?
Relying solely on these can be limiting because energy demand fluctuates throughout the day and varies by location. Solar and wind are intermittent—solar only generates during daylight, wind can be unpredictable—and hydro depends on water availability. Matching supply with real-life demand requires a more diverse mix of renewable sources tailored to specific regional conditions.
How does tidal stream energy work and why is it considered predictable?
Tidal stream energy harnesses underwater turbines placed in fast-moving tidal currents. Since tides follow precise astronomical cycles, their power generation is highly predictable years in advance, unlike wind or solar which depend on weather conditions. This makes tidal energy a reliable complement for coastal areas with suitable geography.
What are the main difficulties facing wave energy development?
Wave energy technology faces challenges like harsh ocean conditions that can damage devices, complex engineering requirements, maintenance issues due to corrosion and biofouling, and high costs. Despite these hurdles, advancements in materials, mooring systems, and digital monitoring are gradually improving its viability for coastal renewable power.
What is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) and where is it most applicable?
OTEC exploits the temperature difference between warm surface seawater and cold deep ocean water to run a heat engine that generates continuous power. It requires tropical regions with significant ocean thermal gradients and access to deep water via large pipes. Islands in tropical climates could particularly benefit from this steady renewable energy source.
Why is a diverse mix of renewable technologies important for future energy grids?
A diverse mix addresses varying local demands, geographic differences, and the intermittent nature of some renewables. Incorporating lesser-known technologies like tidal stream, wave energy, and OTEC alongside solar, wind, and hydro enhances grid resilience, reduces reliance on long transmission lines, fills supply gaps, and adapts better to evolving consumption patterns highlighted in reports like the National Load Growth Report.