The New Era In Energy
Agree. Disagree. Like it. Dont like it. None of that matters.
We simply cannot debate the fact that the world of energy is changing before our eyes. There is a great race taking place as companies try to position themselves to benefit from the paradigm shift.
One would think the traditional utility companies are well situated to take advantage of this. Some of them are looking to transition. However, there is one thing that is going to hurt everyone who presently in the industry. Centralization is on the way out. In fact, we will see a model similar to what happened with the Internet.
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Whereas the Internet connected computer nodes, we are now seeing a world where energy nodes are going to be linked together just like computer nodes are. Many are calling it the "Internet of Energy".
This week, we had an announcement that is showing how some things are changing.
California PG&E is beginning to install Tesla MegaPacks at its Monterey plant.
Tesla TSLA +1.8% and PG&E recently broke ground on a record-setting energy storage system in Moss Landing (Monterey) California that, once complete, will be the largest such installation in the world. The battery park will be able to dispatch up to 730 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy to the electrical grid at a maximum rate of 182.5 MW for up to four hours using 256 of Tesla’s lithium-ion (Li-ion) Megapacks. Tesla and PG&E will have the option to upgrade Moss Landing’s capacity to bring the system up to 1.2-gigawatt-hours which could, according to Tesla, power every home in San Francisco for six hours.
This is the second mega project that Tesla received attention for. A couple years ago, Tesla installed batteries at a power plant in Australia. The system is going to pay for itself in just a few years and save customers more than a hundred million over 20 years.
Over the next decade, whatever the generator, and there are many, we are going to see energy storage explode. Battery technology is improving meaning that peaker plants can be replaced. These are usually powered by fossil fuels which are more costly to run. There are hundreds of peaker plants that can be replaced with batteries.
Many are discussing the idea of electric vehicles being used to relieve the pressure on the power grids. Presently, the traffic is one way but some hardware changes could have EV batteries powering the grid when it is needed.
Like anything. all of this is transitional. Solar and electric are phases of development, put in place on the path towards something else. In the meantime, the move towards solar cannot be disputed. Here again, we see the ability to decentralize as panels end up on the roofs of people's homes. Thus, each home effectively becomes a power generation station.
All the innovation is going to eventually end up driving prices down. For decades, centralized utility companies maintained control. This enabled them to determine the route things took. Often their decisions were about their bottom line as opposed to the customers.
It is now projected that this paradigm shift will rival that of the Internet. What the web did for the digital age, this move will usher a brand new era of energy in.
The opportunity exists for companies to make a fortune.
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