Advanced Energy Perspectives

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Utilities and electricity regulators in the United States and Europe are facing new electricity market realities: flat load growth, rapid adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), emission reduction requirements, and ambitious goals for renewable energy deployment. In Q2 2016 alone, regulators across 42 states took more than 100 different regulatory actions addressing DER adoption, positively or negatively including measures on fixed charges, net metering, solar valuation, third-party ownership, and community solar. New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding (REV), launched in 2014, stands out as an example of a regulatory strategy that promotes more efficient energy use, better integration of renewables and onsite power, and more customer choice.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

The United States installed its first offshore wind facility in 2016. The 30 MW Block Island project off Rhode Island, developed by Deepwater Wind, now raises the broader question to industry followers and the American public alike: Does Block Island herald the beginning of an offshore wind market in the United States?

If it does, there is a lot of catching up to do, compared to the rest of the world. At the end of 2015, total global offshore wind capacity reached nearly 12,000 MW. A remarkable 3,755 MW of that total came online in 2015, driven largely by Germany.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Energy markets are evolving toward a greater reliance upon distributed energy resources, or DERs, whether those resources generate, store, or manage the use of electricity. Strategies to harvest more value from smaller, cleaner, and smarter energy resources are being deployed today. One such strategy is a virtual power plant (VPP), which through intelligent aggregation and optimization of DER can provide the same essential services as a traditional 24/7 centralized power plant.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Nearly $3 trillion has been invested globally in grid modernization since 2000. According to the International Energy Agency, another $8 trillion will be required over the next 25 years to accommodate emerging areas like distributed intelligence and data analytics. These investments will help boost reliability and resilience while reducing operating costs. Amid the digitalization of energy, offering up the IoT, connected devices, smart grid, and even autonomous vehicles to consumers, new challenges, such as cybersecurity, arise.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Coca-Cola is just one of many companies committing to advanced energy goals. 

As a growing number of companies turn to advanced energy to meet their electricity needs, corporate procurement has emerged as a significant driver of deployment. After a record year in 2015, when corporate purchasers and other non-utility buyers signed contracts for more than 3.7 GW of solar and wind power – surpassing utility purchases – corporate pro-curement maintained a steady clip in 2016, reaching 2.5 GW by the end of the year. These numbers do not count onsite generation, another important market segment led by companies like Walmart, Apple, and Coca-Cola.