What We’re Reading This Week: Friday, December 16

December 16, 2016

Emily Jiles

Communications

ORISON

Consumer Electronics Net: DDSTUDIO Design Thinking Approach Nets GOOD DESIGN® 2016 Awards for 3 Clients

Orison energy storage is recognized by GOOD DESIGN®. The Orison Tower and Orison Panel store energy and intelligently power a home or business with the first ever plug-and-play solution. Whether energy comes from the grid or solar, users can control when to store it and when to use it…

Meeting of the Minds Blog: Three Principles of Sustainable Business

…My top three guiding principles of any responsible, successful, and sustainable business include: be a net-contributor, be customer centric, and promote mutual thriving. These guiding principles are built into our DNA at Orison, a plug-and-play energy storage company. By sharing them here, I hope to encourage other sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and business owners to do the same…

Energy Storage

Greentech Media: The State of US Energy Storage in 7 Slides

GTM Senior Vice President of Research Shayle Kann kicked off an extremely well-attended Energy Storage Summit 2016 in San Francisco and testified on the state of energy storage… Although there has been obvious growth in the U.S. (475 megawatt-hours in 2016, up from 167 megawatt-hours in 2015), the volumes are small. Residential deployments in the U.S. are measured in the hundreds, not thousands — because there is “just not an economic case for residential energy storage yet.”…

Greentech Media: GTM Research Identifies Path for Behind-the-Meter Storage to Reach 1GW

… According to the report, key drivers that will allow the behind-the-meter segments to surpass the gigawatt mark include geographic diversification, emerging financing opportunities, business model evolution and adoption by utilities.… Utilities too will begin to offer energy storage to end customers as part of their business model. Behind-the-meter storage will increasingly be called upon to supply grid services, offering new opportunities for project developers, and requiring advances in aggregation and dispatch software…

Renewable Energy World: Remote Communities Stop Burning Their Midnight Oil with Large Scale Energy Storage

…when an ESS is introduced, it is possible to maximize the contribution of renewables, increasing the penetration and harvesting all of the PV power. Fuel savings of 50 to 75 percent then become a realistic possibility. Three recent examples show how energy storage is now making an important contribution for some very remote communities…

Solar Power Portal: London boroughs tackle fuel poverty with solar and storage

Three London boroughs have begun testing the potential of more than 40 solar plus storage installations to reduce the bills of households in fuel poverty. The 24/7 Solar project, which is part funded by National Energy Action, is being led by Camden Council working in partnership with Islington and Waltham Forest councils. The scheme is testing the potential benefits of storing daytime electricity generated by solar PV to supplement the householder’s evening use…

Microgrid Knowledge: Energy Storage Costs Declining. But No One-Size Fits All

… “Our studies continue to demonstrate that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in energy generation or storage,” said George Bilicic, vice chairman and global head of Lazard’s Power, Energy & Infrastructure Group. “The demands of a developed economy will continue to require both traditional and alternative energy sources as the technologies driving renewable energy evolve.”…

UTILITIES

Utility Dive: How forward-thinking utilities are addressing corporate demand for renewables

It could be one of the utility regulatory stories of the year: In 2016, utilities across the country doubled the number of renewable tariff programs to meet skyrocketing demand from large corporate customers…These breakthrough tariff structures, being invented by utilities as they go, differ in many ways. But all allow utilities to sell green electricity to key customers without imposing costs on other ratepayers…

 IOT

PR Newswire: Higher Adoption Rates of the Internet of Things

…According to t a recent research published by Markets and Markets, the Internet of Things technology market is expected to grow from $130.33 Billion in 2015 to $883.55 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 32.4%. The market is currently dominated by automotive and transportation application and the trend is expected to continue during forecast period…

The Guardian: Will the internet of things sacrifice or save the environment?

…“The internet of things will be the biggest, most sophisticated piece of equipment that we’ve deployed across the planet – ever,” says telecommunications expert Kerry Hinton, former director of the Centre for Energy Efficient Telecommunications at the University of Melbourne. “That means that we’ve got to think about the potential limitations on it due to power consumption, the use of rare earth elements – all of that – from day one.”…

RENEWABLE ENERGY

The Motley Fool: Why Corporations Will Be the Real Renewable Energy Superpowers in 2017

…Energy production isn’t the only thing garnering attention from corporate customers. Energy storage has value in the corporate setting as well; up to half of a customer’s bill is a demand charge, which is based on a peak energy consumption level, even if it only represents 15 minutes a month… According to GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association, $812 million was invested in 38 corporate energy storage deals so far in 2016…

The New York Times: Bill Gates Leads New Fund as Fears of U.S. Retreat on Climate Grow

…Mr. Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, announced on Monday the start of a fund to invest in transformative energy research and development to reduce the emissions that cause climate change. The work would supplement and build on basic research already underway at government labs that may be threatened by the incoming administration. Despite Mr. Trump’s expressed skepticism about climate change and his appointment of fossil fuel advocates to his cabinet, Mr. Gates said he expected the president-elect to recognize that government funding of basic research would eventually be good for business, jobs, infrastructure and other economic elements that Mr. Trump campaigned on…

POLICY

Greentech Media: Rick Perry, Governor of Largest Wind Power State, Is Trump’s Pick for Head of DOE

Perry has presided over significant advancements in oil, gas, wind and solar in his state. He was Texas governor from 2000 to 2015. While Perry was governor, wind power in Texas surged. Here are the wind installation numbers for Texas… The DOE secretary helps form energy policy, directs energy research, and acts as steward for the U.S. nuclear military weapons fleet and radioactive waste disposal…

Greentech Media: Will Elon Musk Be the Champion Cleantech Needs at the White House?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been selected to be an economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump. Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, and Indra Nooyi, chairwoman and CEO of PepsiCo, were also picked to join the policy team… Where Musk could be most effective as a Trump adviser is in advocating for continued investments in cleantech research and development at the Department of Energy. Among many other things, the DOE has played an instrumental role in bringing down the cost of lithium-ion batteries and helping to develop the next generation of battery technologies…