Advanced Energy Perspectives

What’s larger, worldwide, than the market for apparel and fashion, and nearly four times the size of semiconductor manufacturing? What’s bigger in the United States than the airline industry, as big as pharmaceutical manufacturing, and catching up to consumer electronics? Advanced energy, that’s what. 

Revenue from the sale of advanced energy technologies, products, and services totaled nearly $1.3 trillion globally in 2014, and $200 billion in the U.S. Those are the topline findings of the Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report, AEE’s third annual report on the size of advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world. But they are by no means the end of the advanced energy growth story.

This week, AEE released Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report, our annual report on the size and scope of the advanced energy industry, both globally and in the United States. Advanced energy is a nearly $1.3 trillion global industry, and growing rapidly—in the U.S., the advanced energy industry grew five times as fast as the national economy overall. If more proof is needed that advanced energy is one of the world’s leading growth industries, we got it in the news this week, which features exciting developments in offshore wind and huge numbers from the world of solar. Also, thanks to AEE member Opower, we now know what happens to a solar-powered country during a solar eclipse.

At most times of the year, much of the electricity generating capacity in the United States stands idle. In fact, on average we use less than half of the available capacity.That’s because the electric power system is built to handle demand at its peak - those few sweltering summer days when everyone’s AC is running full blast. What utilities pay for power at those times of peak demand drives up the price we pay for electricity around the clock and all year long. One way to reduce spikes in demand is with rates that vary by time of use. By pricing electricity higher at times when demand typically peaks, consumers large and small have an incentive to reduce their electricity use when it matters most to the power grid - reducing the costs of the system overall.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

Anaerobic digestion (AD), is a process by which waste, such as livestock manure, food scraps, and municipal/industrial wastewater, is broken down by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen into a combination of methane and other gases, otherwise known as biogas.

Last week, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) issued its first order in the Commission’s groundbreaking Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) proceeding.  We have been covering REV since it was announced last year and, as AEE’s Lisa Frantzis characterized it in a statement, the PSC’s order is “a huge step toward a better energy future for New York State.”