The increasing energy consumption by humanity and the continuous development of energy systems raise serious concerns about the state of the environment and the availability of resources. It has been commonly realised that the global energy system require significant structural, technological and organizational transformations. The concept of energy transition has been widely agreed. Consequently, a significant number of new concepts, approaches, and policy drivers emerged, which were largely enabled by recent developments in the field of technology. The number of possible decision variables, constraints and degrees of freedom in the design process have been substantially increased. In addition, many new actors have become active in the field, including energy consumers which define new bottom-up approaches and ground-breaking initiatives. However, on the other hand, there is no a single solution for building sustainable energy systems requires. There are different goals and activities being defined in different regions and by different stakeholders. This paper presents a subjective review of activities and concepts in the field of design of large scale energy systems. The AARTT framework is proposed, which groups trends and innovations into five respective categories, namely: Awareness, Approaches, Resources, Technologies, and Tools. Within each category up to date literature, reports and projects have been reviewed and in result a mind map has been built, which depicts key innovations. This enables identification of major changes, emerging trends and critical innovations that may have impact on the functioning of modern societies and future shape of energy systems. It is concluded that the fate of our future doesn’t depend solely on technologies but rather holistic approach and concerted multi- and interdisciplinary activities are required.