News & Events
Making the Case for Peak Defection and Why Utilities Should Care
“Grid Defection,” a term popularized by the Rocky Mount Institute in their report Economics of Grid Defection, has caused some trepidation among utilities executives taking a long-term look at their industry. However, little has materialized to date that gives reason...
Residential Energy Storage: Another Chance for Utilities
As energy storage solutions continue to decline in cost, it is largely inevitable that distributed energy resources (DERs) will be a critical part of the future electricity grid. In the residential markets, U.S. utilities were slow to embrace the opportunity presented...
Hybrid Energy Storage Systems Get the Best of Both Worlds
But calculating the true costs and benefits of energy storage is still difficult math. Many years ago, I was part of a U.S. Air Force program with the goal of reducing the battery weight carried by airmen and soldiers by 25 percent. The Air Force Program Office, after...
“Support Your Local Power Grid” Why cheap solar doesn’t solve everything
2015 has proven to be another record year for clean power globally. As for 2016, wind and solar are cheaper than ever, the US just signed a major climate change agreement in Paris and everyone seems to hate coal, so look for another record year. On top of this, the...
We Need a Better Way to Compare the Performance of Energy Storage Technologies
Grid-scale energy storage is getting a lot of attention this year. Pricing has come down and perceived value has come up -- expanding the commercial viability of different technologies. But the story is much more complicated. There are plenty of important technical...
We Need a Better Way to Compare the Performance of Energy Storage Technologies
What’s the best metric for evaluating storage? No one has come up with one yet. Grid-scale energy storage is getting a lot of attention this year. Pricing has come down and perceived value has come up -- expanding the commercial viability of different technologies....