Advanced Energy Perspectives

Energy storage was in the news this week, with new market entrants reported and storage’s value touted – but also questioned. AEE Member company Enphase announced this week that it had not only created a solar microinverter that is so technologically advanced that it “was not even possible to do when we started the company,” according to Paul Nahi, Enphase’s CEO, but is also moving into the realm of energy storage. Enphase is taking years of research and development to create an energy management system that will accompany a modular plug-and-play battery. According to Greentech Media, the system will combine grid smarts, analytics, communications, and energy storage, in addition to load management and consumer control capabilities.

Everybody, hold onto your hats. The moment we have been waiting for may have finally arrived – or, well, it’s not very far off. American offshore wind is on the horizon, figuratively and literally, and approaching fast.

American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) hosted its Offshore Windpower Conference and Exhibition in Atlantic City, NJ, last week, which brought together industry leaders, including Deepwater Wind, Cape Wind, and Dominion Virginia Power. Currently, there are 14 offshore wind projects under development, but none has yet to put a turbine foundation in the water. That’s all about to change.

As the U.S. gets closer to a 21^st century electricity system, how energy is distributed, managed, and consumed becomes just as important as how energy is generated.  Two of the fastest-growing segments in the advanced energy industry today are demand response and energy storage. Each has huge potential for market growth, and we see it in this week’s headlines. 

First, according to a new report from Navigant, the global demand response (DR) market is set to increase six-fold in less than a decade, from 31 gigawatts (GW) today to 196 GW by 2023. Both commercial/industrial and residential sectors will drive DR growth, according to the report.

Call it a tale of two renewable portfolio standards (RPS). North Carolina’s renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolio standard has just scored a major investment in solar power by the state’s major utility. But in Ohio, a new law freezing that state’s renewable energy standard has already put the local solar industry in a deep freeze.

The “sharing economy.” It’s the new, new thing (or, depending on your perspective, very, very old). Over the past five years, companies like Uber and Airbnb have attracted millions of dollars of venture capital and built a huge customer base. “Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer,” The Economist writes, “sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel as and when it suits them.” The ability to share goods and services is having a disruptive impact across the economy. Can energy be far behind?