Harness the Sun: America’s Quest for a Solar-Powered Future
>(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Philip Warburg explores a range of solar technologies. A seasoned environmental lawyer, Warburg makes a case for embracing this technology as he talks about what is happening around the country and what more could be done. Recorded on 01/19/2016. Series: “UC Climate Solutions Channel ” [6/2016] [Science] [Show ID: 30827]
Solar-Powered Future
5:34renewable energy regime and I’m not just talking about the storage wall but Elon
45:39Musk is talking about and you know storage wall in every household but that
45:43could be a good thing too that would allow us to be storing the electricity
45:48that we generate not necessarily feeding it back into the grid which in part
45:52answers the whole net metering dilemma and using that power when we need to use
45:58it most in the peak periods which tend to be evening hours when the Sun isn’t
46:02shining but I think we’re going to see utilities undergoing a profound
46:09challenge where they’re going to have to move away from being purveyors of
46:14kilowatt hours to being comprehensive energy services provider where they are
46:19dealing in the demand response market where they’re dealing in the storage
46:23market and where they’re dealing in the power generation market and that’s going
46:27to be a very rough and tumble transition I don’t know how many have you heard of
46:32David Crane a few David Crane was the CEO until a few weeks ago of NRG Energy
46:39and
46:41I always like to quote him because he always said the most outrageous things
46:45and I was in awe that he could get away with saying those things as the head of
46:50a major power producer among other things he called the utility industry a
46:58society I think of me and recalls which did not make his colleagues in the
47:03industry very happy he was shown the door a couple of weeks ago because the
47:09Renewable Energy side of the energy business wasn’t doing so well and I
47:13suspect that various people on the NRG board we’re not thrilled with the way he
47:20was articulating the challenges facing us going forward but his basic
47:23philosophy was we must move toward a distributed electric generating scenario
47:30which is going to involve story just going to involve conservation in a smart
47:35way smart grid management etcetera and it was a message that I think was a
47:42little bit ahead of this time and in and enough ahead of its time that he lost
