BANGALURU, India - A multibillion dollar trend is transforming the energy industry, and it’s not about drilling. It involves a different kind of bit: digital data.

Just as fracking made oil and gas cheaper to produce, a new era of digital technology is starting to cut costs and boost efficiency for all kinds of energy—whether from oil fields, wind turbines or solar farms.

This frontier includes traffic robots, inspection drones, smart meters, self-driving vehicles and other sensor-equipped machinery, all connected through the Internet of Things. Its Big Data could save energy and alleviate climate concerns. It also raises questions about privacy and security.

To explore the topic, National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge held a forum with dozens of experts last week at