Belonging to the energy and materials sector means this company will be affected directly and indirectly by a number of disruptive opportunities and challenges over the coming decades. While described in detail within Quantumrun’s special reports, these disruptive trends can be summarized along the following broad points:

*First off, the most obvious disruptive trend is the shrinking cost and increasing energy generating capacity of renewable sources of electricity, such as wind, tidal, geothermal and (especially) solar. The economics of renewables are advancing at such a rate that further investments into more traditional sources of electricity, such as coal, gas, petroleum, and nuclear, are becoming less competitive in many parts of the world.

*Concurrent with the growth of renewables is the shrinking cost and increasing energy storing capacity of utility-scale batteries that can store electricity from renewables (like solar) during the day for release during the evening.

*As Africa, Asia, and South America continue to develop over the next two decades, their populations’ increasing demand first world living conditions will spur demand for modern energy infrastructure that will keep energy sector building contracts going strong into the foreseeable future.

*Automation will significantly reduce the operating costs of mining raw materials, as mining companies will gain access to trucks and drilling machines that are increasingly operated by advanced AI systems. These reduced costs will at first lead to higher profit margins for market leading mining companies, but will shrink once these automation technologies become normalized throughout the mining industry.

*While the rise of renewables will result in less drilling business for hydrocarbons, it will increase mining contracts for materials related renewables, such as lithium for solid-state batteries.

*The growing cultural awareness and acceptance of climate change is accelerating the public’s demand for cleaner energy and resource extraction practices, a trend that will lead to stricter regulations by the late 2020s.