Advanced Energy Perspectives

Our industry has a story to tell. It is a great story. It is the story of a growing, job-creating, economic engine of our society. It’s about an industry that is poised to leverage billions of dollars in federal and state funds into many billions more in private investment to transform our energy infrastructure and create the path to a cleaner, more reliable, more affordable energy future. It’s about the chance to bring people who have been ignored or excluded into the energy resource planning process to define and implement community benefit projects that are, in fact, beneficial.  

Renewable energy is now the most cost-effective form of power, electric vehicles are competitive with gas combustion vehicles, and grid-edge business innovations and demand-side management technologies are revolutionizing the way consumers use and control their energy. Following the federal energy legislation boom in 2022, the advanced energy industry stands at the edge of an opportunity to grasp the clean energy goals that are being set throughout the country.  

But we won’t achieve these goals without significant changes to the way businesses engage with decision-makers and consumers. To get there, the industry needs a united, sustained approach from the businesses leading the transition. 

Last week, we gathered leaders from the nation’s major clean energy business associations to discuss the current policy landscape in Washington and across the country in a special event we called Clean Energy Unites! 

From the earliest days of AEE, we’ve operated under the principle that if we can remove the barriers preventing the adoption of clean energy, and allow our industry to compete in the market, then the businesses we represent will provide a secure and affordable energy future and stimulate a robust and globally competitive economy. Our work at AEE is to improve or introduce policies that lead to new market opportunities for clean energy. Sometimes, however, the barriers go beyond public policy and exist due to a complex combination of policy, politics, and even physical obstruction. One clear example is transmission, and the significant barrier it represents for our industry. If we do not meaningfully improve and expand the electrical transmission infrastructure in this country, then we, as a nation, in our regions, and in our states, won’t be able to connect clean energy resources to meet rapidly growing energy demand, and we won’t be able to reach the goal of 100% clean energy or electrified transportation. Addressing this barrier is a monumental task — and it’s a problem our team knows how to tackle. That is why, on October 27, AEE launched a campaign to enable and promote solutions.

Top executives and policy makers recently gathered for a forum on a set of advanced energy technologies not always at the center of attention. At the AEE Executive Forum, entitled Microgrids, Energy Storage, and Renewable Natural Gas: Capturing Value for Consumers, the focus of the conversation was on the opportunities presented by the adoption of these technologies and the challenges of bringing them to scale. “For this forum, AEE brought together senior leadership from member companies, entrepreneurs and investors, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and investor-owned utilities to address fundamental policies to strengthen our industry’s ability to transform the market and deliver resilient and reliable renewable energy,” said AEE CEO Nat Kreamer. Over dinner and a daylong dialogue, participants in this exclusive event also had the opportunity to network and build relationships among providers, utilities, regulators, and institutional customers.