Advanced Energy Perspectives

In the news this week: Utilities themselves speak to changing utility business models that include distributed resources, regardless of federal policy. Plus, more efficient lighting coming to the streets of Chicago and General Motors facilities thanks to AEE member companies, and Anheuser-Busch makes a commitment to advanced energy. We’ll drink to that!

This week’s news saw a big dose of energy storage, along with a Lady Gaga-backed energy efficiency device (really). Plus, Big Oil brings its offshore expertise to advanced energy and more in this week’s news.

Small batch, local electricity? Photo by Simon Syon.

This week, advanced energy goes mainstream! From an article in the New York Times about a solar microgrid in Brooklyn with a unique payment scheme, to cities across the country shopping for electrified fleet vehicles, to American offshore wind becoming more of the norm, this week’s news was full of commonplace advanced energy becoming more, well, commonplace. Read on for all that, plus a healthy dose of AEE member news.

A Microsoft datacenter in Quincy, WA.

Advanced energy is a $200 billion industry in the United States that supports more than 3.3 million American jobs, as detailed in the new report Advanced Energy Now: 2017 Market Report. Earlier this week, Microsoft invited AEE, as well as other industry groups such as Edison Electric Institute, Northeast Clean Energy Council, and Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, and executives from SunPower and Direct Energy, to discuss the power of the advanced energy industry to drive economic growth.

AES Storage's SDG&E project is the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facility. 

Advanced energy is on the march, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the energy storage market. From providing flexibility and ancillary services to the grid to ensuring reliability for utilities and back up for electricity customers, energy storage is on the rise everywhere – as seen in headlines all over this week and last. From a study that takes issue with the economics of installing residential solar-plus-storage to a family Down Under that has done just that, to more and better batteries being built across the nation. Charge up and read on!