Advanced Energy Perspectives

As advanced energy has, well, advanced over the past few decades, the conversation has advanced as well. Whereas in decades past the challenge was convincing folks that solar and wind could power anything larger than a 17th century grain mill, the challenge now is getting past the notion that the power grid can handle only so much wind and solar, which are variable resources. But that idea, too, is starting to go the way of the windmills of yore. So says the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. solar market has been growing at an astronomical rate in recent years, reaching a new milestone of more than 20 GW of total operational solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. The Washington Post declared “Solar energy is poised for yet another record year,” referencing GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Q2 2015 U.S. Solar Market Insight report released this week. According to the report, the U.S. installed 1,393 MW of solar PV, bringing total installed capacity to 22.7 GW - enough to power 4.6 million American homes. The growth was driven by 729 MW of utility-scale solar projects, as well as residential solar, that generated a record quarter of 70 percent growth year-over-year. And that’s just the beginning.

It’s not news that electric vehicles (EVs) are changing the trajectory of the transportation industry. Although they make up a small share of the total vehicles currently on the market, EVs are pushing innovation and expanding their reach into almost every segment of the industry. EVs aren’t just changing the game. They’re changing the rules.

Even considering the turmoil in the overall stock market this week, advanced energy is on a bit of a Wall Street rollercoaster. Specifically, wind is riding a wave, while solar shares are in the doldrums – even though both advanced energy technologies are on a roll.

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.