Flexible, future-proof solutions for a renewable energy future

In an exclusive interview with Energy Connects ahead of World Utilities Congress 2025, Alexandre Eykerman, Managing Director and Energy Business Director, Middle East, Wärtsilä UAE, explains what drives the transition to renewable energy.

• How is Wärtsilä contributing to the global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions?

Wärtsilä is at the forefront of the transition towards a 100% renewable energy future. We help our customers and the power sector to accelerate their decarbonisation journeys through our market-leading technologies and power system expertise.

Our solutions include flexible engine power plants, energy storage and optimisation technology, and services for the whole lifecycle of our installations. These solutions are critical for integrating renewables and ensuring the stability and reliability of the grid, and an optimised overall power system.

Wärtsilä engine power plants enable the integration of greater amounts of solar and wind. Engines can quickly ramp up whenever renewables aren’t generating enough electricity – providing the necessary balancing power to keep the grid stable. They can also be shut down instantaneously when not needed. This ability to quickly ramp up and down enables maximum renewable absorption and helps avoiding curtailment and therefore, wasting energy.

Energy storage is a complementary technology to grid balancing engine power plants. Energy storage can provide power in seconds and even milliseconds to support renewables, while flexible balancing engines can provide the needed minute-level, daily and seasonal variations.

Wärtsilä’s engines are future-proof:  today the engines can run on natural gas and be switched to run on sustainable fuels when commercially available, enabling net-zero power systems of tomorrow. In 2024, Wärtsilä launched the world’s first large-scale 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant.

• What are the biggest challenges facing the energy sector today, and how is Wärtsilä addressing them?

One of the critical challenges that the global energy sector faces today is the need to accelerate the transition to cheaper, more secure and sustainable energy future. Energy is the world’s largest source of CO2 emissions globally which means that we in the power sector have the opportunity - and a responsibility – to take bold and urgent action and make an impact.

Wärtsilä has modelled almost 200 power systems globally and consistently found that flexibility is key in the integration of more renewables and achieving the lowest cost clean energy future. We need technologies that are flexible, dispatchable and future-proof and can balance renewables in a heartbeat. Energy storage can handle second and minute-level balancing, while balancing engine power plants can handle minute-level, daily and seasonal variations. Engines are also ready for a net zero future: utilising gas as a transition fuel today, they will be capable of running on whichever sustainable fuels are most abundant in the future and not become stranded assets in the decades to come. 

The decisions we make today will shape our energy future and have huge implications on the impacts of the climate challenge. Therefore, we must ensure that our energy systems are being built in the right way, and we need to deploy technologies that will help accelerate the transition to decarbonised energy future while increasing energy security.

• How does Wärtsilä support utilities in improving energy efficiency and ensuring grid stability in a rapidly evolving energy landscape?

Renewables are the cheapest energy source, but flexible assets are needed to ensure grid stability. Wind and solar need to be supported by energy storage, grid-balancing engines, and demand-side response to avoid blackouts and inefficiencies. Traditional baseload generation may struggle in this new system, while flexible power solutions will be essential. Natural gas remains a key transition fuel until sustainable alternatives scale up. Wärtsilä’s fuel-flexible engines provide stability today and can convert to hydrogen in the future, enabling a smooth path to net zero.

• What innovative technologies or solutions is Wärtsilä showcasing at the World Utilities Congress this year?

We at Wärtsilä will continue to focus on innovative solutions and technologies that ensure a stable and reliable power supply while accommodating the variability of renewable energy sources.

Our solutions include flexible balancing engine power plants, energy storage and optimisation technology, and services for the whole lifecycle of our installations. Our engines are future-proof and can run on sustainable fuels. Last year, we launched the world’s first large-scale 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant which will be available for orders in 2025, and available for delivery from 2026.