Advanced Energy Perspectives

“We are at another inflection point in California policy,” said Howard Wenger of SunPower Corp., an AEE board member. With legislation pending across the street in the Capitol to raise California’s already high standards for renewable energy and building efficiency, and adding a target of cutting petroleum use in half, all by 2030, what better context could there be for AEE’s third annual “Pathway to 2050” conference? The capacity crowd of nearly 400 gathered in the Sacramento Convention Center got a full sense of that inflection point – and the stakes for industry growth – from key policy makers and business leaders in a full day of dialogue and networking on August 20.

Since it was founded in 1998, Google has revolutionized a lot of things: cartography, communication, how we retrieve information. This week, Google’s at it again, this time with advanced energy. Google announced Project Sunroof, what it calls a “treasure map” for rooftop solar. As the video announcing the project says, people already ask Google questions about solar. “There’s all this stuff to figure out,” the voiceover says, “like, how many panels do you need? Who’s going to install them? How much would you actually save? And how do you tell if your house even gets enough sun?” Between its search algorithms, calculating engines, and mapping technology, Google thinks it has the answers to these questions, and Project Sunroof is going to give them to you – if only in three locations, so far.

Solar panels atop the Orlando Science Center. Photo by Jeff Krause.

Solar becoming cost competitive in sunny Florida and Hawaii, and AEE members making deals worth millions. Just another week’s work for advanced energy.

For over a year, the advanced energy industry in Michigan has engaged in a good faith effort to reshape the state’s energy policy. Throughout the process all parties have had reason to be optimistic about the legislation that would come out of this process. The level of public and stakeholder engagement led by Senator Mike Nofs, chair of the Energy and Technology Committee, was more in-depth than usual, and in March, Gov. Rick Snyder delivered an energy address that called for Michigan to reduce energy waste through increases in efficiency, as well as continue to diversify its energy portfolio with renewable energy. That’s why the pair of bills filed by Nofs and his committee vice chair took everyone by surprise.

Disruptive new technologies, aging infrastructure, strengthened environmental regulation, and increased energy efficiency adoption are all contributing to a rapidly changing energy landscape. In order for utilities to plan for meeting future energy demand in the most cost-effective way, many states require utilities to file integrated resource plans (IRPs) with their state public utility commissions (PUCs). IRPs first started in the 1980s in response to the desire to better integrate energy efficiency into utility planning, the unexpectedly high costs of developing nuclear plants, and the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Today, new technologies, changing market conditions, and new environmental regulations are making IRPs change with the times.