The research rationale is a significant increase in the need for energy resources and their irrational use. The world should follow the path of implementing the innovative energy concept. The basis of its long-term development is not only mining, production, and export of traditional energy carriers, but also their substantial rationalization based on the latest scientific achievements, which would ensure the development of a new energy system and provide energy consumption quality while maintaining the indigenous environment. The global future development vision of the world energy buildout should be based on the predicted changes in the economy and the consumer society, which form the demand for energy products and services, as well as on its defining requirements, setting its social and political development priorities. The possibilities of changing the global energy system (financial, organizational, and technological), which is forced to adapt to qualitatively new demands, cannot be overlooked as well. Even the most developed states’ efforts are not enough to solve this task in case if they are single forces. The whole world community should be concerned about this and mobilize resources for building the innovative energy future. An urgent task is the institutional regulation of energy conversion processes on an interstate scale, attracting the world scientific potential to solve its strategic development tasks, searching for new breakthrough energy sources and nonstandard technological solutions, developing the energy-saving culture among energy producers and consumers. This would allow to increase the various energy types production, reduce losses, work steadily, move to such a work with fair competition conditions in the free energy services market. The research purpose is to present a systemic, global vision of ways (a) to create a new model for the sustainable energy development, which would be based on a qualitative change in the energy potential; (b) to ensure sustainable development of territories, energy security, and energy digitalization; (c) to change the structure of energy sources; (d) to preserve the indigenous human environment and industry intellectual potential; (e) to ensure the competent use of alternative and small power energetics; (f) to form the technological and organizational base of innovative energy. The article materials can be practically used by power engineers and economists, politicians, state and municipal authorities, educational institutions, and all those interested in the issues of innovative energy development. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.