Sustainability

How the competition will play out is still unclear. What is evident is that the state perceived as the winner in this race will likely become a regional hub for energy storage, attracting investment and jobs, while leaving the other state in its shadow. This puts policy makers in the hot seat.

The San Diego County Water Authority has received a $1 million incentive from the California Public Utilities Commission to build and deploy intelligent energy storage that will save ratepayers money and stretch the energy output potential of solar panels already installed at the Water Authority’s Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant.

Answering the call for increasing energy self-reliance, a grassroots electricity-sharing model is emerging. “Community microgrids,” comprising community-owned or subscribed solar PV and other renewable energy sources, offer participants and surrounding consumers the security of energy resilience in times of grid failure and protection from energy price increases driven by volatile energy markets.

San Diego's Poway Unified School District - $1.6 million in energy savings creates leverage for educational excellence.

For much of the past four decades, energy efficiency has been the focus of electricity cost-saving initiatives. We have changed light bulbs, swapped out old appliances, insulated our buildings, and added solar systems. The efficiency gains have slowed, however, and the next savings frontier will come from power efficiency.

It is easy to talk about sustainability, especially when the timeframes for achieving quantifiable results are comfortably far in the future. It’s much harder to actually implement feasible sustainability programs that will have a significant business impact. A survey of more than 3,000 executives by the MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group found that while nearly 90 percent of respondents consider a sustainability strategy essential to remaining competitive, only 60 percent have such a strategy. And only 25 percent have developed a clear business case for sustainability.

For many, “sustainability” evokes images of solar panels, windmills, and electric vehicles. When we at Green Charge use the word, we are indeed talking about reducing carbon emissions by using energy storage to bank renewable energy, thus reducing reliance on power from oil and coal.

Commercial and industrial organizations can benefit from adding energy storage to their sustainability plans, from increasing the use of renewables and adding resilience to cutting demand charges and supporting the grid.