Electricity
eLab Accelerator Projects Sustain Hope for Clean Energy Innovation
Anyone reading the news knows that clean energy isn’t getting much support at the federal level these days. As President Trump moves to unravel the Clean Power Plan and his administration continues to promote the use of fossil fuels for energy generation,…
The Promise of Platform-based Grids
Platform business models have redefined the modern economy. From titans of personal computing and e-commerce like Apple and Amazon, to ubiquitous financial services that we use with hardly a second thought (think ATMs and credit cards), industries everywhere have reoriented from one-directional pipeline delivery systems to multisided platforms on which…
What’s Driving the Cost of Residential Solar-Plus-Storage Systems?
Guest author Kristen Ardani is a solar program lead for Solar Soft Costs and Tech to Market at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The residential solar-plus-storage market has certainly received a lot of attention in recent months. With the release of new, lower-cost products and implementation of utility time-of-use…
Letting Customers Lead Us to a 21st-Century Electricity Grid
From Hawaiian homeowners to large customers in the Nevada desert to government fleet managers in cities across the U.S., customers are beginning to take control of their energy by using innovative distributed energy resources (DERs). DERs such as rooftop solar, energy storage, electric vehicles, and grid-interactive appliances can save customers…
The BRC and Second Nature: Bringing Renewable Energy to Campuses Nationwide
Guest author Timothy Carter, Ph.D., is the President of Second Nature. Renewable energy is truly having its moment in the sun. One doesn’t have to look hard to find solar panels on the neighbors’ roofs, majestic wind turbines popping up across the Great Plains, or that new Tesla you’ve seen…