Can Smart Grid Outsmart all the Obstacles?

Yesterday, we attended a sold-out Smart Grid event that was sponsored by CommNexus-San Diego, a non profit network of communication and defense industry companies. While the event itself lasted 90 minutes, you had the feeling that everyone in attendance would have stayed a couple more hours to have all their questions answered. The fascinating thing is that the development of the Smart Grid is essential, while at the same time being confronted with maddening obstacles. Logic-be-damned politics is at the center of many of these obstacles, posing the question: Will we have the political will to overcome them all?

There is so much that can be said about the Smart Grid. It has so many components and aspects. For now, I’ll try to keep it simple. First off, from a very high point-of-view, the Smart Grid is simply about consumer empowerment. The more a consumer knows about his or her own consumption, the more likely he or she will be willing to alter behavior to save money. More importantly, without a Smart Grid the power distribution system will be unable to sustain the projected growth in energy demand. Using a Smart Grid, consumers will be charged premium rates for energy usage during peak-demand time periods and lower, discounted rates during low-usage periods. Existing energy grids are old and antiquated.They must be built to accommodate the highest required volumes for peak-usage periods. Put in other words, the capacity of the existing energy grid is largely unused because consumer usage varies widely throughout a day and in different seasons of the year.

The introduction and wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles (EV) will further challenge the capacity of existing energy grids. A single EV requires more than 6 kW over a 3 hour period to re-charge. This is more energy consumption than than the average-sized home. Imagine what effect a mass migration from gas service stations to plug-in electric re-chargers could have on an already maxed-out grid.

As has been the case in the wireless industry, there are no Smart Grid industry standards. We heard that San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) uses Zigbee and Z-Wave for their in-house wireless network, but the panel of experts agreed that there likely will ever be any such industry standards. Will this slow down the Smart Grid development?

Incorporating renewable energy that is generated withing the grid itself seems to be the biggest no-brainer of all in the discussion about Smart Grid development. When I think of in-grid renewable energy, I see photovoltiac panels on the roofs of an entire community. I see these solar panels funded by PACE programs (California AB811), companies like SunRun or by the utilities themselves. If we increase the capacity of energy generation closest to the point of usage, we significantly reduce the cost of building infrastructure – a major savings to consumers. But I was shocked and amazed to hear that in the state of California the renewable energy program DOES NOT INCLUDE residential roof-top or ground-mount solar when calculating how much of a utility’s energy is green and how much is fossil-based. In other words, there is no incentive for the utilities in California to vigorously pursue the development distributive solar energy generation.

While there seems to be strong legislative consensus that renewable energy is the way to go, there are other similar legislative obstacles to getting there. I’ve written about some already at this blog site: a solar bill of rights, innovative financing, national net metering, grassroots advocacy and, probably most importantly, general consumer ignorance and apathy. If you add to this list feed-in-tariffs and shifting government subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables, we’re really talking about a uniform national energy program that would be essential for national security. Such an ambitious concept brings up the age-old debate of states rights (and autonomy) versus Federal rights.

At the event yesterday, this point was driven home clearly. Tom Blialek, Chief Smart Grid Engineer for SDG&E, stated that the California PUC program to create more green energy would result in 150MW of wind power being created in the Imperial Valley of California. Since wind energy is generally created at night and energy storage technology is still being developed, it will be necessary to order these windmills to be shut down, as is the current practice in Europe. This raised the question: why not sell excess energy across state lines rather than shut the windmills down? The answer was symbolic of the whole area of Smart Grid and renewable energy development: while the question makes a lot of logical and practical sense, from a political stand-point, there are too many issues to get sorted out before a national or world-wide smart grid will be able to happen.

This is why we must build the solar tribe. This is why we must have meetups in our areas. This why we need to do what we can to get our communities involved. This why we need to blog, tweet and use social media to inform and involve others. The power to outsmart the obstacles is in our hands. It’s an exciting time to be alive.

Gathering of the Tribe

Do you feel it? It is a feeling that starts in each one of us. It’s a feeling of urgency; a feeling of expectancy; a feeling of excitement. Many of us who seem to be very like-minded are finding one another on the Internet through social networking or in the business community at get-togethers and functions. We are a part of the inevitable change of our times. The solar power industry has been around for a long time, as have some of those people being drawn together. Solar has always been “cool,” but it’s also been mostly impractical, unaffordable or just plain too technical — at least, that’s the way it’s been for me until the last three years. For me, it started with a viewing of An Inconvenient Truth in late 2006.
 
My initial response after viewing An Inconvenient Truth was more about Al Gore and the 2000 Presidential election. I was haunted with the thought of how much different the world would be today if the Supreme Court had gone the other way. Today I believe that sometimes things must fall apart before they can fall together. Anyway, after viewing An Inconvenient Truth, my pathway to solar began by passionately working to convince Al Gore to again run for President. I was one of the hundreds of thousands of “Goristas” carrying the Draft Gore banner though 2007. Then, after the call came from Gore’s office asking that we stop, I shifted my passion to the Biden campaign and then to the Obama campaign. In October 2008, with the election assured, I attended the solar tradeshow in San Diego.

Wow. Walking the aisles of the solar show took me back to some of the Internet tradeshows I attended more than a decade before. The aisles were jammed and there was a palpable air of confidence among the exhibitors. Speaking with the folks who were putting on the event, I found that they had turned away nearly 500 exhibitors, having only contracted for space for about 425 exhibitors. I immediately realized that my passion for solar had been awakened at the same time I got swept up in the Presidential campaign. I was excited to have found a new channel for my passion.

Since then, I am encountering others who have a similar passion for solar. There is a solar tribe. There’s Ken Oatman who was previously involved in the distribution industry and started up a top-notch solar installation business in the Boulder-Denver area. He’s embracing microinverters as the best way to go in designing residential solar solutions. Then there’s Tor Valenza, who many will know as “Solar Fred.” Tor has been in the industry for nearly 30 years and is one of the leaders of our tribe. I totally relate to the 1BOG people, who, like me, were walking neighborhoods for Obama. Today, they are walking neighborhoods for solar power. And then there is my good friend Michael Powers and his partner Kent Harle. They are the founders of one of the best solar installation firms in California, Stellar Solar and the two of them demonstrate to me constantly that solar power is a bi-partisan proposition that we all can agree on. This is but a small cross-section of the solar tribe. Some of our tribe have been here awhile. Some are just arriving. We are coming together at Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and in our respective communities, just to name a few examples.

Each of us plays a different role – installer, wholesaler, consultant, financier – but together we all have the same job to do: to change the way the world thinks about solar. Coming from the Internet/software development industry, I like to say, “We need to put a better GUI on solar power.” Solar needs a better user interface. I believe it is the mission of our tribe to do this. Within our circles, we are just “preaching to the choir.” Together as a choir, we need to get the word into mainstream and change the paradigm from that of purchasing solar panels to purchasing solar power. Together we need to make acquiring solar power as easy as signing up for cable and DirectTV. Together we need to tear down the walls preventing access to solar power. We must tear the walls all the way down.

So the tribe is being called. Many have heard the call. It’s about cooperation, not competition. It’s about a movement where we can express our passion and earn a living along the way. So, when you see someone’s blog or Tweet or an article that forwards our message or stimulates more creative thinking, pass it on. Together, let’s make history.