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03.12.21 News 43

Greentech Media in action at the 2019 Solar Summit, one of our last live events before the pandemic put us all behind screens.

Greentech Media Bids Farewell

A 14-year run covering an energy industry transformed — and just getting started.

by Jeff St. John

03.10.21 Grid Edge 4

California's demand response industry isn't happy with state regulators' latest move to tap flexible loads to prevent future grid emergencies.

California’s Latest Demand-Side Emergency Plan Draws Criticism From Providers

Critics say the minor changes aren’t enough to help, and the expanded capacity rules could boost natural gas plants.

by Jeff St. John

03.04.21 Grid Edge 26

Duke Energy's plan to build natural gas plants is being challenged by groups accusing the utility of misrepresenting data to undermine cleaner alternatives.

Duke Energy Faces Challenges to Its Push for New Natural Gas Plants

Critics cite flaws in the utility’s analysis of winter peaks and offer up solar, battery and efficiency alternatives.

by Jeff St. John

03.03.21 Grid Edge 16

East Bay Community Energy is tapping OhmConnect's residential virtual power plant as a hedge against energy costs during the state's summer peaks.

Energy Hedging: A New Way to Make Demand Response Pay in California?

OhmConnect and East Bay Community Energy take a novel approach to capturing value from home energy flexibility.

by Jeff St. John

03.03.21 Grid Edge 4

Huge solar and wind growth is on the way. The grid operator is hoping not to hinder progress toward the 2060 net-zero target.

New Plans Reveal How China’s Grid Is Prepping for Net-Zero Carbon

Terawatts of renewables and the world’s largest EV charging network will play a role as China eyes peak carbon emissions by 2030.

by John Parnell

02.18.21 Grid Edge 1

Understanding the Texas Grid Failure

This week on The Energy Gang: we dissect what went wrong in Texas.

by Stephen Lacey

02.17.21 Energy Storage 34

Not all lithium-ion batteries are created equal. Proponents of the less-fire-prone LFP variety think the technology's time has come.

Will Safer Batteries Finally Take Over the Home Storage Market?

Tesla and LG Chem rule the market with their NMC battery products, but the LFP battery contenders believe their technology’s time has come.

by Julian Spector

02.01.21 Energy 1

Early-stage investors are looking for startups that can shave soft costs and expand access to clean energy.

The Rules for Early-Stage Cleantech Venture Capital Investment in 2021

Create incremental improvements, serve new national climate-change imperatives, and put social impacts front and center.

by Jeff St. John

01.28.21 Grid Edge 0

Social Energy plans to expand home solar-battery aggregations from the U.K. to Australia, Japan and continental Europe. (Credit: Social Energy)

UK Solar and Battery Aggregator Social Energy Raises Cash, Plans Expansion

CarVal Investors makes “significant investment” in startup controlling batteries for U.K. grid services.

by Jason Deign

01.27.21 1

Grocery stores can save on power bills by running their refrigeration systems more intelligently, software startup Axiom Cloud contends.

A Defunct Energy Hardware Startup Is Reborn as Software-Centric Axiom Cloud

Providing thermal storage for grocery stores didn’t work out for Axiom, but its energy management software proved valuable on its own.

by Julian Spector

01.19.21 Grid Edge 5

California agencies face a tight deadline to take steps to prevent more rolling blackouts this summer.

Final Analysis of California’s August Blackouts Yields Few Surprises and a Tight Deadline for Solutions

Quick supply and demand-side actions could forestall future rolling blackouts, but how to get there is open to debate.

by Jeff St. John

01.11.21 Grid Edge 9

Schneider Electric's Energy Center brings an integrated circuit panel for distributed energy-equipped homes to market. (Credit: Schneider Electric)

Schneider Electric Unveils the Energy Center for Distributed-Energy-Enabled Homes

Integrated service for solar, batteries, EV chargers and whole-home energy controls is starting to go mainstream.

by Jeff St. John

01.08.21 Grid Edge 6

New Jersey's first large-scale smart meter deployment comes on condition of giving customers access to data.

New Jersey Approves PSE&G’s $778M Smart Meter Rollout

The state’s first big AMI deployment comes with a demand from the regulator to share data and value with customers.

by Jeff St. John

01.07.21 Grid Edge 1

The project will help avoid or delay infrastructure investments and avoid system-balancing costs. (Credit: National Grid)

New UK DERMS Project Targets Flexibility Across Distribution and Transmission Grids

Smarter Grid Solutions to work with the regional DNO and U.K. system operator on the whole-system platform.

by John Parnell

01.05.21 6

Google Nest and other major behind-the-meter flexibility providers say California's regulations need to change to enlist demand response to prevent grid emergencies.

California’s Big 2021 Decision on Grid Reliability: Expand Supply or Manage Demand?

Google Nest and other distributed energy providers demand fast action to bolster behind-the-meter flexibility.

by Jeff St. John

12.30.20 Grid Edge 1

The grid edge in 2020 was driven by decarbonization and climate change pressures, and by policy and technology advances.

Greentech Media’s Must-Read Grid Edge Stories of 2020

Decarbonization, resiliency, distributed energy market policy and M&A in the year of COVID-19.

by Jeff St. John

12.17.20 Energy Storage 5

The battery is expected to come online in summer 2021.

Google to Test Data Center Battery Backup That Also Serves the Grid

Google wants to “make the most” of required data center backup systems on its quest for 24/7 clean energy.

by Emma Foehringer Merchant

12.15.20 Energy 1

The sun shines over the Google solar field at the company's Saint-Ghislain, Belgium data center.

Inside Google’s Quest for 24/7 Clean Energy at Data Centers

In this bonus podcast, we look at how Google is scaling zero-carbon for warehouse-sized computers.

by Stephen Lacey

12.11.20 Grid Edge 5

California startup Swell is tapping into growing investor appetite for behind-the-meter energy resources that can also serve grid needs. (Credit: Swell)

Swell Readies $450M in Financing for Solar-Plus-Battery Virtual Power Plants

The California startup’s plans for virtual power plants in three states add to a group of fast-growing investments in distributed energy as assets.

by Jeff St. John

12.10.20 Grid Edge 1

EV charging will account for gigawatts' worth of load on U.S. power grids, which could be both a threat and an opportunity for utilities. (Credit: Enel X)

Enel X and EnergyHub Team Up on Grid-Smart EV Charging

Enel’s JuiceBox smart chargers, plus EnergyHub’s distributed energy platform for utilities, take on EVs as the next grid frontier.

by Jeff St. John

12.09.20 Efficiency 20

Clean energy and health advocates are calling for California to expand regulations to require all-electric construction in new homes.

Debate on All-Electric New Buildings in California Is Coming to a Head

Clean energy groups, utilities and corporate giants are running out of time on the push for all-electric baselines to limit new natural gas build-out.

by Jeff St. John

12.09.20 Energy 6

Heat pump installs will need to ramp up substantially to keep pace with government targets.

Can Flexibility Unblock the UK’s Heat Pump Potential?

Annual heat pump installs will have to increase by a factor of 30 to meet government ambitions. Integration with flexibility technologies could hold the key.

by Catherine Early

12.07.20 Grid Edge 6