Nancy Pfund

The energy indus­try is at a major junc­tion. We’ve had our grandfather’s elec­tric­ity sys­tem for 100 years, with no major changes or inno­va­tions. Now, the energy indus­try is in an inno­va­tion cycle across many sec­tors, from elec­tric­ity to trans­porta­tion to agri­cul­ture and beyond. The trans­for­ma­tion is akin to what we’ve expe­ri­enced in phones, com­put­ers, and even music dis­tri­b­u­tion over recent decades. Uniquely, this inno­va­tion is fueled not just by eco­nomic… Show more

The energy indus­try is at a major junc­tion. We’ve had our grandfather’s elec­tric­ity sys­tem for 100 years, with no major changes or inno­va­tions. Now, the energy indus­try is in an inno­va­tion cycle across many sec­tors, from elec­tric­ity to trans­porta­tion to agri­cul­ture and beyond. The trans­for­ma­tion is akin to what we’ve expe­ri­enced in phones, com­put­ers, and even music dis­tri­b­u­tion over recent decades. Uniquely, this inno­va­tion is fueled not just by eco­nomic oppor­tu­nity, but by envi­ron­men­tal imper­a­tive as well – energy-​related car­bon diox­ide emis­sions account for more than 80 per­cent of U.S. green­house gas emis­sions. From indus­try icons like First Solar, Tesla, Sun­Power and SolarCity to excit­ing upstarts like Util­ityAPI, Farm­ers Busi­ness Net­work, Advanced Micro­grid Solu­tions and Off Grid Elec­tric, our country’s entre­pre­neurs are increas­ingly focused on cre­at­ing the 21st cen­tury energy sec­tor. With this focus comes not only a flow of cap­i­tal, but a flood of job cre­ation. The solar indus­try alone offers over 200,000 well­pay­ing jobs as of last year, grow­ing at an annual rate of 20 per­cent com­pared to 1.74 per­cent for the rest of Amer­i­can job growth.The growth rate in clean­tech not only exceeds that of other fast grow­ing tech com­pa­nies, but also has been pop­u­lated by a more demo­graph­i­cally diverse work­force than that of other energy and tech­nol­ogy indus­tries. Despite its promise and remark­able growth rate, the 21st cen­tury energy sec­tor is still a bud­ding indus­try – solar only rep­re­sents about one per­cent of U.S. elec­tric­ity gen­er­a­tion and elec­tric vehi­cles are still less than three per­cent of U.S. auto sales. Main­tain­ing U.S. lead­er­ship in clean energy and the atten­dant growth rate in job cre­ation will require America’s next pres­i­dent to think holis­ti­cally about the indus­try and take a broadly strate­gic approach to energy policy. Show less

The argu­ment that an increase in renew­able energy in the United States means more expen­sive elec­tric­ity has per­vaded the debate on renew­ables ver­sus fos­sil fuels for decades. A new DBL Investors’ report “Renew­ables Are Dri­ving Up Elec­tric­ity Prices. Wait, What?” exam­ines the 100-​​year-​​old util­ity busi­ness model by look­ing at the top and bot­tom 10 states that derive elec­tric­ity from renew­able sources. The report reveals that over the last ten years greater gen­er­a­tion… Show more

The argu­ment that an increase in renew­able energy in the United States means more expen­sive elec­tric­ity has per­vaded the debate on renew­ables ver­sus fos­sil fuels for decades. A new DBL Investors’ report “Renew­ables Are Dri­ving Up Elec­tric­ity Prices. Wait, What?” exam­ines the 100-​​year-​​old util­ity busi­ness model by look­ing at the top and bot­tom 10 states that derive elec­tric­ity from renew­able sources. The report reveals that over the last ten years greater gen­er­a­tion from renew­ables did not equate to sky­rock­et­ing elec­tric­ity prices. In fact, states gen­er­at­ing more elec­tric­ity from renew­ables often expe­ri­enced aver­age retail elec­tric­ity prices well below states pro­duc­ing less elec­tric­ity from renewables. Show less