... And We're Back!

Sorry for the long pause, folks. My last post was The day before I became gainfully re-employed and immediately caught up in a whirlwind of activity. I am now a project manager for Astrum Solar, a residential PV solar installer with offices in Maryland and Valley Forge, PA. My daily posting was mostly a product of having time on my hands and an interest in staying involved in the industry while I was looking for a new job. Now that I have one and things are settled down, this blog will resume a regular, if adjusted schedule. Expect weekly posts on Friday afternoons!


Two Greentech Media featured articles this week caught my attention that I wanted to share. The first touches on a subject that will gain more attention in the next year- utility deregulation as a demand-response driver of efficiency gains. Usually one would not think that regulatory restrictions being lifted from an essential service like an energy utility would result in the utility reaping windfall profits at the expense of the consumer. That would be the eventual fate of the upcoming deregulation of Pennsylvania's energy utilities, except that a new law recently passed requires utility companies to decrease their peak-demand energy use. Act 129 will require reductions in overall energy usage as well as peak energy usage reductions by 2011 and additional targets for 2013. The full text of the bill can be found here.

This is particularly good news for residential solar system owners in Pennsylvania, who produce power during peak hours when rates will become extremely high. It is also good news for smart grid companies whose technology will be essential to implementing these reductions, which brings me to the second Greentech article. The DOE recently announced a package of grants totalling $100 million for smart grid training programs. The cleantech industry will thrive if smartgrid technologies can be implemented across the country. Our archaic, analog grid designed like a string of christmas lights that shuts down completely when one bulb burns out is incredibly vulnerable to failure, disruption, and the severe security threats presented by such incapacitation. A distributed generation system capable of sensing and fulfilling energy requirements in realtime will save billions in lost or wasted energy.

Google Powers... Everything.

It's Official: Google Can Sell Power Like a Utility

Google Inc., the multitasking internet conglomerate, owns a subsidiary called Google Energy, which is the subject of the linked article. The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission has just officially granted this entity the right to sell power like any other utility company.

This is particularly interesting because of another Google subsidiary not mentioned in this article: Google.Org

Google.Org is a philanthropic division of Google Inc, focusing on investing windfall profits in a venture capital role with companies and organizations as a way of reducing Google's tax burden. Renewable energy is strongly represented in this portfolio, including high profile start-up technology companies like eSolar.

eSolar owns proprietary rights to a concentrated solar thermal tower design that has so far only been deployed in a quasi-operational pilot project. With their initial venture capital fund at their disposal to construct the pilot project and fund an extensive sales campaign, eSolar has locked down over 1 GW in PPAs already.

Here's the catch: eSolar initially intended to develop their own projects with their technology, hoping to rely on their big chunk of capital for project equity. Banks, however, have not been as receptive to new technologies in the current lending climate, and eSolar has experienced significant challenges obtaining the right combination of project partners and technology risk mitigation to actually break ground on new projects.

This leaves Google in an interesting position, being the proud new owners of an FERC approval. Via an inside contact who will remain anonymous, exclusive information was provided that Google has been exploring project development and ownership of renewable energy facilities.

For a company of Google's size and strength, not to mention money and influence, the prospect of such vertical integration in a blossoming market is somewhat frightening. On the other hand, many of the challenges to developing renewable energy that will be discussed in the coming days and weeks relate primarily to its newness- the risk inherent in new technologies, and the lack of experience and data. Perhaps Google's involvement on this level would give a jolt to the rest of the industry and bring credibility by proxy.