New Project Media covered a report released by Frost & Sullivan estimating nearly $1 trillion will be invested into DERs over the next decade, including quotes by TAEBA's Suzanne Bertin. Read excerpts below and the entire New Project Media piece here (sub. req.).  

A new report released by Frost & Sullivan includes a dramatic new projection: over the next decade nearly USD 1 Trillion will be invested in distributed energy resources (DERs) with the “rate of annual investment” to increase by 75 percent over the same period. 

“The DER business model will play an increasingly pivotal role in the global power mix as part of a wider effort to decarbonize the sector,” Frost and Sullivan’s Senior Energy Analyst Maria Benintende said. “Additionally, solar PV will dominate throughout the decade...”

Over in Texas, the managing director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) Suzanne Bertin is making the same point. Citing an AEE study into the potential savings of deferring transmission and distribution costs, a nagging issue for large states like Texas, Bertin sees DERs, specifically more condensed wind and solar projects, as the next frontier for renewable project development in the state.

“What we’re talking about is really moving from having a few really big power plants to a whole bunch of tiny power plants,” Bertin told New Project Media. “It cuts down on costs related to transmission and distribution because you’re not having to deliver it as far. Being able to locate a whole bunch of smaller units where the energy is being consumed is a more efficient way to do it..."

According to Bertin, Broad Reach Power is not an outlier. “We are seeing increased energy storage projects announced all across Texas,” Bertin said. “Given the dramatic cost declines in storage technology that we’ve seen, and they’re still coming down, we see a very promising growth market for energy storage in Texas, especially as developers shift to more solar and wind plus storage combos.”

While Frost and Sullivan’s projections include a COVID-related caveat that orders may fall up to 12 percent below its study’s initial projections, they maintain that they “do not expect this crisis to significantly change the direction of the transition toward a more decarbonized and decentralized energy system.”

In fact, Bertin argues, this unexpected COVID-19 pandemic may only heighten the region’s demand for distributed resources.

“The COVID health crisis certainly sheds light on the need for a more affordable, resilient and cleaner grid,” Bertin said. “We know that adding DERs to the Teas grid would save customers USD 5.47bn over the next decade by reducing peak demand and substituting less costly non-wires solutions for transmission and distribution investments...”

Read the entire New Project Media piece here (sub. req.).