Advanced Energy Perspectives

In response to the COVID-19 health crisis, businesses and trade associations alike have shifted to remote work options, making many adjustments along the way. We hope that all of you, your coworkers, families, and friends are safe and remain healthy — and have transitioned well to this new reality. Today we share some tips from a lively internal email thread at AEE, where some of our staff have worked remotely for more than eight years (some for 15 or longer in prior roles), and now the rest of us are working from home as well. We have refined many tools and systems for productive, impactful advocacy work from dispersed locations. But the current situation is far more extreme, with travel restrictions, offices closed, and shelter-in-place orders. We need all the tricks of the work-from-home trade to succeed in our work and in our mental state. Here, we share the best of them with you.

Last week, the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released their 8th annual “2020 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook,” revealing a decade-long transformation of the U.S. energy sector to cleaner advanced energy resources. The report shows that the United States experienced extraordinary change in how we produce, deliver, manage, and consume energy as we shifted to cleaner, more efficient resources since 2010. During the same period, the economy grew more energy efficient, more energy secure, and less carbon intensive, with the American consumer becoming the primary beneficiary. Building on last year’s findings, the 2020 Factbook comes up with some interesting conclusions, some of them self-evident, others more surprising:

Caption (clockwise, from top left): Ford's Bob Holycross shows off the Mustang Mach-E; Fleet Electrification Panel with AEE's Matt Stanberry, Jim Bruce of UPS, Lyft's Corey Ershow, and Colin Murchie of EVgo; GM-Chevy's Kyle Suba touts 259-mile range of 2020 Bolt; VW's Mark Gillies describes mass-market EV plans.

In late January, AEE hosted its second annual EV press tour at the 2020 Washington Auto Show in Washington, D.C. We didn’t realize it would be a Super Bowl preview of sorts, given big ad buys touting hot new EV models from Audi, General Motors, and Porsche. But the Auto Show presented the perfect opportunity to update the media on U.S. and global trends driving market growth, identify associated policy issues, speak directly with auto manufacturers about their plans and strategies, and see the latest EV models firsthand. Joining us were reporters from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Politico, Houston Chronicle, Electrek, Cheddar, E&E News, S&P Global, and Smart Cities Dive.

We all have the power to save energy and today’s technology providers make it easier than ever to make a big difference. Whether you want to save money on your home energy bills, improve building comfort, reduce office, commercial and industrial costs, drive U.S. economic growth and jobs, or make a significant dent in harmful emissions, energy efficiency (EE) is a superpower we can all tap right now.

That’s why AEE is supporting the fourth annual national Energy Efficiency Day on Oct. 2 and encouraging you to join us. Working with national and regional EE colleagues, we are taking this fall day to highlight all the benefits of EE, shed light on enabling technologies, share valuable, cost-saving tips, and make it fun.

In May, we convened one of the hottest events exploring the intersection of U.S. finance and advanced energy with both national and state impacts — AEE’s Clean Street Meets Wall Street CEO Forum. Coming from a range of perspectives, participants delved into cutting-edge topics, including current risks and opportunities in today’s electricity markets, and trends in the advanced energy investment pipeline. The New York City event was also a Who’s Who for networking and side conversations with executives from the advanced energy industry, financial institutions, electric utilities, and technology companies.