Industry
Energy and the grid: generation, storage and the wires between
Every branch in this map eventually depends on electricity that can be delivered where and when it is needed. This one covers how it is generated, how it is stored, and why the network — not the generation — has become the constraint that everything else is waiting on.
Electricity is where several of this map's other branches terminate. A fab consumes utility volumes comparable to a small city. A data centre is a flat load the size of a town that cannot be energised without a transformer nobody can deliver for three years. An electric vehicle fleet is a large new demand and, potentially, a distributed store.
The branch is organised by what a technology does to the system rather than by fuel, because in a system with a large variable share the question is no longer only how much is generated but when, and whether the network can carry it. Solar and wind generate variably. Storage moves energy through time. Transmission moves it through space. Firm low-carbon generation covers the hours the first three cannot.
The recurring theme across all four is that the constraint has moved from generation to everything around it. Solar modules and battery cells are cheap and their manufacturing is concentrated but not scarce. Transformers, transmission lines and interconnection studies are what projects actually wait for, and none of them respond quickly to demand.
Two of these pages are the far end of links written elsewhere in the map. The transformer page is what a data centre's power section depends on. The utility-scale battery page draws on the same cell chemistry the vehicle branch describes. Following those links in either direction is the point of laying the map out this way.
How this breaks down
Split by what the technology does to the electricity system: generate variably, store, move, or generate firmly.
- Energy and gridthis page
- SolarThe manufacturing chain behind a panel, the cell technologies competing inside it, and the electronics around it.Breaks down into: Polysilicon and wafers · Cell technology · Module assembly · Inverters and trackers · Perovskite tandems7 pages belowChokepoint
- WindThe machine at the top of the tower, the composite structures that turn, the steel that holds them up, and what changes at sea.Breaks down into: Nacelles and drivetrains · Blades and composites · Offshore foundations · Towers11 pages belowChokepoint
- StorageGrid batteries, longer-duration options, and the inverters that let storage hold the grid up.Breaks down into: Utility-scale batteries · Long-duration storage · Grid-forming inverters3 pages belowChokepoint
- Grid infrastructureThe equipment and the process that decide whether anything can actually connect.Breaks down into: Electrical steel · High-voltage cable · Transformers · Transmission and HVDC · Overhead conductors · Interconnection queues10 pages belowChokepoint
- Firm low-carbon powerSmall modular reactors, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the geothermal and hydro options beside them.Breaks down into: Small modular reactors · Nuclear fuel cycle · Geothermal and hydro7 pages belowChokepoint
What this depends on
3 of these are marked as a chokepoint: a handful of qualified suppliers, a multi-year lead time, or a single geography.
- Supply chainChokepoint
Transformers and grid equipment
Nothing connects without them, and the manufacturing base was sized for replacement demand rather than for an electrification build-out.
Transformers - Supply chain
Battery cells
Grid storage draws on the same manufacturing base as electric vehicles, mostly iron-phosphate chemistry.
Battery cells - StandardChokepoint
Interconnection and permitting processes
The queue, not the technology, is what most projects are actually waiting for.
Interconnection queues - Supply chain
Power semiconductors
Every inverter, converter station and charger is built around switching devices, and the wide-bandgap ones depend on a substrate supply chain that expands on its own timetable.
Compound semiconductors - ResourceChokepoint
Skilled electrical trades
Line crews, winders and commissioning engineers are trained over years, and an equipment order that arrives without them still waits.
What depends on this
Other pages in this map that name Energy and grid as something they cannot do without.
- Commercial aerospace · PropulsionSustainable aviation fuelThe synthetic route needs very large amounts of low-cost electricity, which places it downstream of the grid.
- Data centresPowerA flat, continuous load requires firm supply; where the grid cannot provide it, generation has to be contracted or built.
Companies across Energy and grid
Every company named on a step below this page, ordered by how many of those steps it appears at. Compiled from the pages themselves rather than written separately, so the two cannot disagree. Not a ranking and not a recommendation.
- Siemens EnergyGermany5 steps
Nacelles and drivetrains · Generators · Blades and composites · Power transformers · Converter stations
- ABBSwitzerland3 steps
- China National Nuclear CorporationChina3 steps
- OranoPrivate3 steps
163 more companies appear at a single step each; they are named on the pages for those steps.
How these pages are written
Each page explains one technology in plain language, states what it depends on, and names companies by what they supply at that step. Company roles are described qualitatively and deliberately carry no market shares, revenue figures or rankings — those change faster than an explainer can, and a stale number is worse than none. Ticker links point at company pages on this site and are provided for reference only.
Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or a forecast. A company named on a page about a technology is not thereby a good investment, and the chokepoints described are structural facts about supply chains rather than predictions about prices. Technology moves; where a page describes something as unresolved or in development, that was true when it was written.