Electricity 2.0

Today @ 3:30 - Electricity 2.0: Envisioning the Future of Electricity w/ Chairman Ed Markey

Today, NDN will host an important and groundbreaking event focused on charting a course to the electricity future. Entitled Electricity 2.0: Envisioning the Future of Electricity, the event will feature remarks by:

  • Congressman Edward Markey, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment

and a panel discussion with:

  • Clem Palevich, former President and CEO of Constellation New Energy 
  • Nick Sinai, Director of Energy and Environment for the Federal Communications Commission 
  • Jigar Shah, founder of Sun Edison and now CEO of the Carbon War Room 
  • Michael Moynihan, author of the recent policy paper from NDN & the New Policy Institute, Electricity 2.0 

In addition to protecting our climate and enhancing energy security, clean electricity has the potential to power a new wave of prosperity. It can serve as a platform for entrepreneurs and innovators to create new jobs and build new industries.  

In order to meet this challenge and achieve clean electricity's promise, the United States must update our antiquated grid and add dramatically more renewable resources. The US currently supplies 3.5% of power from renewables, compared with 28% in Denmark. 

Electricity 1.0 helped secure reliable, universal power. But with R&D in the electricity industry having dwindled to less than 1% of sales, utilities constrained from offering new products and services, renewable generators unable to get their product to market, and consumers unable to control their energy destinies, it is time for an upgrade to Electricity 2.0. With a new open architecture in place and the right incentives to restore innovation and revive investments, Electricity 2.0 promises to do for energy what the Internet did for communications.  

Electricity 2.0: Envisioning the Future of Electricity
Tuesday, May 11 @ 3:30 p.m.
U.S. Capitol - Room HC-6 (access through South Entrance)
A live webcast will begin at 3:45 p.m. ET
RSVP  :  Watch Webcast

We are on the cusp of a revolution in how the world creates, trades, and consumes energy. However, for that revolution to occur we need to create a new modern, open, and secure electricity architecture that allows innovation to flourish.

Moynihan in Eilperin WaPo Piece Today on Cape Wind, MA

NDN Fellow and Green Project Director Michael Moynihan has the following quote in a really interesting piece in the Post today by Juliet Eilperin:

"The tortured history of Cape Wind is not just a not-in-my-backyard story of fisherman and wealthy people on the Cape," said Michael Moynihan, director of the Green Project at NDN, a centrist think tank. "It is emblematic of the difficulty of getting wind online, anywhere in America, with a system designed a century ago that is frankly hostile to renewable energy."

If you haven't read Michael's groundbreaking new paper, Electricity 2.0, or his recent SF Chronicle op-ed about the need to reimagine our electricity system to help unlock the clean tech and renewable revolution, you can find them both here.

Electricity 2.0 Featured in SF Chronicle, Paper Release Today

UPDATE: Michael Moynihan's new policy paper, Electricity 2.0: Unlocking the Power of the Open Energy Network, is now available online. 

This morning, readers of the San Francisco Chronicle opened to page A-10 and saw this op-ed from NDN Green Project Director Michael Moynihan:

To get clean energy, upgrade to Electricity 2.0

While clean energy has captured the imagination of everyone from Silicon Valley venture capitalists to President Obama, it has yet to fulfill its job-creation promise. Non-hydro renewable power accounts for just 3.5 percent of electricity in the United States, compared with 28 percent in Denmark, a leader in the transition to renewable energy. In a study released today, I examine why progress has been so slow in the electricity industry - the network at the center of the wider energy network. The answer turns out to be that our highly regulated system, uniquely complex by global standards, is blocking progress.

Put simply, only by upgrading from Electricity 1.0 - the closed, highly regulated network created a century ago - to Electricity 2.0 - an open, distributed network - can America unlock the potential of clean technology and experience a renewable energy revolution.

It is often said that an inadequate electric grid is slowing the rollout of clean renewable energy. But why is the grid inadequate? Because the regulatory regime of Electricity 1.0 guarantees the current state of affairs. While the industry research consortium, Electric Power Research Institute, has done an outstanding job in improving the reliability of the network, utilities do virtually no research and development. Laws bar them from trying new business models, innovating and taking risks. This bias against innovation prevents utilities from purchasing technologies developed by others. Thus, entrepreneurs find the gates of the network closed. It should not be surprising that a highly regulated industry cannot lead a revolution.

So, how can America upgrade to Electricity 2.0? As with telecom reform, Electricity 2.0 will require nothing less than a Big Bang that includes federal legislation as well as close cooperation with the states to harmonize rules of the road. Partial reform, such as has taken place in Texas and California, is a start, but it is not enough. What's needed is an entirely new plug-and-play architecture that opens the grid to everyone, making connection the norm not the exception.

Read the full piece.

For more on Moynihan's compelling vision for Electricity 2.0, join NDN at 12pm today for a presentation of the paper. Copies of the paper, entitled "Electricity 2.0: Unlocking the Power of the Open Energy Network," will be available for distribution. 

Electricity 2.0: Unlocking the Power of the Open Energy Network
Thursday, February 4, 12 p.m.
NDN: 729 15th St. NW, 1st Floor
RSVP 

If you are unable to join us in person, a live webcast will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Three Interesting NDN Events This Week - Angelides, Clean Tech, America in 2050

Got an action packed line up this week for those either able to make it to lunch in our offices, or watch on-line.  Tomorrow we start with the Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Phil Angelides, who will be talking about the necessity of understanding where we have been to help inform the decisions about how to best move forward.

Next up on Thursday is the unveiling of a major new paper by our Green Project Director, Michael Moynihan, proposing a new way to help unlock the transformative power of the clean tech and renewable energy revolution.  Michael has been working on this paper for close to a year now, and if these are areas of interest, you won't want to miss it. 

Finally, on Friday, an old friend, Joel Kotkin, returns to NDN with one of the first public events discussing his compelling new book, The Next 100 Million: America in 2050

So, a full week.  To RSVP or to get more information click here.   And look forward to seeing you at one of these wonderful events.

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