A business idea for you: Deploying cloud tech in the energy sector. The gap between sustainable causes and the tech industry is widening amid a competition for capital, writes David Koji for Entrepreneur. Big Tech is realizing it will need more than “smart bulbs and mobile-controlled thermostats” to operate the wave of cloud-based platforms that require energy mass-scale server farms, he says. Tech has skyrocketed in the energy sector in the last three years, particularly in data collection services. “Technology consulting firms are vital to improving the capabilities of current working assets to optimize output until additional units can be put in service,” international energy consulting firm Opportune LLP writes on its blog.The conventional wisdom has been to supplement upstream costs with downstream cash from end-users, writes Koji. Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel, or the microprocessor chip, so huge business opportunities exist for tech companies who can take advantage of the increasing pressure to move management of the energy sector into the cloud.