On Monday, August 24, the 8th Annual Clean Energy Summit was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Keynote speakers included President Barack Obama, as well as policy experts, energy industry leaders, and investors. The goal of the Clean Energy Summit is to “bring together top minds to discuss energy options that will improve quality of life, save money and grow the economy.” President Barack Obama, in his thirty minute speech, discusses energy policies and outlined the actions he plans to take to promote more sustainable economies and improve energy efficiency and renewable energy. This article will outline and quote the key points made from his address. A YouTube video of his address can be found here.
Wasting Less Energy
“First of all, we’re wasting less energy. We’ve set new fuel economy standards on cars and trucks, new efficiency standards on appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers — and these advances are already saving folks money at the pump; it’s saving money on their electricity bills. And steps like these also mean that factories and businesses aren’t just paying for energy, they’re getting paid not to waste energy. The economy as a whole is producing a lot more using less energy. And we’re also using less dirty energy.”
This is true. The U.S. is slowly turning into a more sustainable economy. However, we still waste more energy than we save. In our last article, we reported the U.S. only saves 31% of its total energy expenditures. Most of the rest is wasted energy. This is not to say that the president’s policies are not working; we as a nation would be much worse off without these changes already in place—the numbers would be even worse—but we still have a long way to go.
Wind & Solar
The president addressed important notes about what progress our country has made in both wind and solar generation.
On wind: “Today, America is number one in wind power, generating three times as much wind energy as we did in 2008. There are now more than 500 wind manufacturers across 43 states supplying the wind industry — an industry that supports more than 50,000 jobs and supplies enough energy to power 16 million homes.”
On solar: “America generates 20 times as much solar power as we did in 2008 — 20 times. Last year was solar’s biggest year ever. Prices fell by 10 percent; installations climbed by 30 percent.” . . . And that’s why, last year, the solar industry added jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy.”
Cost Savings
“For decades, we’ve been told that it doesn’t make economic sense to switch to renewable energy. Today, that’s no longer true. . . . Many of our biggest businesses are backing up that fact. . . . They’re not doing this just out of altruism. They’re doing it because it means big cost savings. And that can mean big things for local communities.”
This is true on the broad scale, especially for big businesses. Larger corporations have the advantage of enormous budgets and capital to make large-scale improvements that make financial sense in terms of payback and ROI. For some small- to mid-size businesses, however, there are still some constraints that make renewable and energy efficiency options not economically viable at this time. However, an increasing number of new renewable and energy efficiency options continue to become available for both the residential and commercial sectors. In addition, the cost to upgrade to more energy efficient equipment continues to decline. While not every business can take advantage of these options now—although many can and should—it will be imperative to in the very near future to save energy and remain cost-competitive.
Microgrids, Solar, and Battery Storage
“The Department of Energy is announcing a new push to deploy innovative “distributed energy” resources like micro-grids or rooftop solar with battery storage, and will offer loan guarantees for projects like these. And we’re going to make it even easier for individual homeowners to put solar panels on their roof with no upfront cost. So specifically, we’re going to take steps to expand the use of a tool we call PACE, which helps you pay for solar panels through the future savings on your energy bills.”
“A lot of Americans are going solar and becoming more energy efficient not because they’re tree huggers—but because they’re cost-cutters.”
I want to help clarify concepts such as microgrids and battery storage, since some of these ideas are relatively new and haven’t necessarily seen a lot of mainstream press.
Microgrids
Microgrids are essentially a way to disconnect from the grid. We all connect to the grid to receive electricity and gas to heat our homes and operate our businesses. Microgrids, however, utilize solar energy combined with battery storage to disconnect from the grid to provide autonomous power. This is especially useful during power outages. But more importantly, microgrids can be used to cut costs by disconnecting your power stream from your utility provider, even if only temporarily. Using a combination of utility grid power and non-utility microgrids is a new concept that is helping redefine how we use energy.
Battery storage
We mentioned that microgrids utilize a combination of solar energy and battery storage. Battery storage is also a new concept in the energy industry. We discussed the power of battery storage in a previous article here. To refresh your memory, battery storage is just like it sounds: it stores energy in a battery, which is charged from renewable energy power. That stored energy can be utilized at any time off the grid.
Currently utility companies are experimenting with battery storage to help reduce load demand. During peak energy hours—when homes and businesses are using the most energy—the utility companies see a spike in energy demand. Those hours are when prices for your electricity bill are the highest. However, utilizing the energy saved in large-scale batteries and redistributing them to customers would lower peak demand and lower costs.
Energy Control
President Obama wisely notes that while we’ve made tremendous advancements, we have a long way to go. But one of the big ideas going forward is the idea of Americans having more control over how they use their energy. The new concept, which surprisingly utility companies are pouncing on, is to let us determine how we want to use energy—whether we want to stay on the grid, go solar, or use a cominbation of solar, microgrids, and utility grid power. And understanding our energy and how we consume it is becoming easier and easier with the advancement of smart meters.
“There’s a big shift going underway that goes beyond simply putting solar panels on your home. But the real revolution going on here is that people are beginning to realize they can take more control over their own energy — what they use, how much, when.”
“For decades, our energy system basically worked one way: Utilities generated power, usually by burning fossil fuels. They ran lines into the home or business. We paid for it. It wasn’t a real exciting business, there wasn’t a lot of innovation. We didn’t think about it much in our daily lives — until the energy bill came in the mail.”
“Six years ago, smart meters were pretty rare. Today, 60 million consumers have access to detailed information about how much energy we use, how we use it, when we use it. So we can use that information to change our habits, use energy more efficiently, save more money without a whole lot of sacrifice. We can control our thermostats from our smartphones. New appliances and smart devices can tell when energy prices are cheapest, and do laundry, or wash the dishes, or charge our car at those times.
“That’s power. That’s the future. That’s happening right now. It’s an American energy revolution that’s like evolving from the telegraph to the smartphone in less than a decade. It’s happening fast.”