As a new year and a new decade begins, it’s hard to resist the impulse to check the crystal ball and try to intuit what might be in store for us in the coming year. When it comes to energy efficiency and onsite power, 2009 was comprised primarily of promises. The hope for 2010 (and beyond) is that we will now begin to see payback on those promises, in the form of both “brick-and-mortar” funding, as well as quantifiable trends and strategies that point towards an ever increasing awareness of the importance and potential of distributed energy. In the November/December issue of RenewableEnergy.com, chief editor David Wagman takes a shot at prognostication, with interesting results.
In his piece, Wagman discusses the trends that he anticipates will drive the renewable energy markets in the coming year. While Wagman’s focus is on renewable energy, I think his insights are relevant to distributed generation as well, particularly Wagman’s assertion that developers are more open than ever to distributed projects. As Wagman points out, many of the frustrations and difficulties experienced by developers in 2009 involved siting, permitting, and transmission issues. One way to overcome these obstacles is to take what Wagman calls “the path of least resistance” —projects with a distributed energy component.
Wagman does a particularly good job of highlighting how distributed generation and renewable energy can work create a symbiotic relationship between onsite power and the grid. He also points out that incremental development, like the piece-by-piece rooftop PV strategy currently being employed by Southern California Edison, can help project developers overcome some siting and permitting issues, while at the same time allowing for “new capacity without the need for additional transmission.”
What do you think? Can renewable energy blaze a path for onsite power and energy efficiency? Or is trying to cobble together onsite power generation and green technology too much of a stretch? And, will we finally see action on all those ARRA and DOE funding promises?