This is the third and final part in my series exploring the events that shaped the electric industry as we know it. If you haven’t already done so, I recommend reading part one and part two first. As I mentioned in part one, the power industry was born from the inventions and investments of Thomas… Read More
Most Americans give little thought to their electricity. Even though we spend between 3% and 7% of our income on power bills, we only engage with our power companies 10 minutes a year. Would it surprise you to learn that electricity is one of the largest and most profitable industries in the U.S? If we want… Read More
Microgrids are the epitome of Local Energy. As the name suggests, microgrids are miniature versions of the big grid. They generate their own power and they have their own loads. And, if the grid goes down, microgrids continue to operate in what the industry calls “island mode”. Even though there are only a few thousand built so… Read More
This is the second in a three-part series on the origins of the modern power industry. Part 1 can be found at How Edison, Tesla, and other visionaries invented the modern grid. The sparks that started the AC/DC current wars By the late 1880s, Edison was on his way to dominating the rapidly growing power… Read More
Competition is all about price, features, and customer experience. Right? That’s what business schools have been teaching for decades and it’s largely true. But, if you really want to change an industry, you need to change the rules. You need to create new business models. The untold story behind some of the most disruptive companies… Read More
It was the summer of 2012 and the Mid-Atlantic was being pummeled by one of the worst storms in years. This was the second summer of heavy thunderstorms and squalls to come through Montgomery County, Maryland, in as many years. The county leaders were scrambling to dispatch police and emergency workers. But with so many… Read More
Local energy is the fastest path to cleaner, cheaper, more reliable power. Nowhere is this truer than Africa. And, few people express the amazing future of local energy in Africa better than Amar Inamdar. His recent talk from TEDGlobal 2017 was featured on the home page of TED.com and has been spectacularly well received. If… Read More
Every single solar project, big or small, gets assembled one at a time on a roof or in a field. But what if you could pre-manufacture solar projects in a factory, instead? Could you do to solar what Henry Ford did to cars and make solar even more affordable and available to virtually everyone? What… Read More
In mid-November, forty of the brightest minds in solar gathered just outside New York City. Their goal was simple yet audacious: find a way to dramatically reduce the cost of solar installations by re-inventing how they are designed and built. The cheaper we can make solar, the faster we accelerate the shift towards clean energy.… Read More
Clean energy is the biggest business opportunity in history. Let me explain. To put this in perspective, look at the first bar above (1). The creation of the US interstate highway system is often cited as the largest infrastructure project ever. Between 1954 and 1991, the US invested $468 billion to create it (that number is… Read More
