Developers, Architects, Engineers, and Contractors - tune in to hear how the evolving utility grid is redefining energy projects in 2024. Shoot me a message or drop a comment below to collaborate further!
Hello this is. And operators, and today we are. A topic of energy that gets everybody up in arms and that is solar. Net energy metering this state of the energy grid. And what to look forward to in 2024. So if you're an owner, if you're a project developer, contractor, consultant, engineer. Architect, Stay tuned. So. Let's talk about net energy metering. We went from NEM 2.0 to 3.0. What does that mean? Well, with the onset of renewable energy onto the California energy grid from commercial and residential installs. The Public Utility Commission has decided that. Incentives. After these changes have been put in place, we'll go from $0.30 per kWh approximately to three cents a kWh. For solar generated during peak hours of the day and. That has a lot of people upset. It's put many people in the solar industry out of business. And. Look, you know, people looking for a way to navigate the future and. What it really comes down to is the priorities of the grid are coming to the forefront in that we have a phenomena in the state of California called the Duck curve or what I would like to call the Grand Canyon curve now and. What's happened is the net demand or the supply and demand mix really shows us that in the peak hours of the day. We have somewhat of an over generation of solar in the peak hours and what happens is this over generation, think of it like a cup that is now overflowing, right? Not super useful when you're wearing the drink that you wanted to drink and. What? What? What that creates is a situation where. We have to either dispatch that energy somewhere else, maybe to another state, we have to simply turn things off, disconnect things, or it could cause some serious infrastructure issues or require some capital improvements that just PG&E does not want to take on and so. This is kind of the context which justifies really some of the moves that have happened with NEM 3.0 and so now. We are looking to the future and thinking, well, what does that mean for us? You know, is. The era of solar over? The answer is no. This is, you know, hypothesis, but really. My perspective is we swing very drastically from a, you know, renewable energy, solar type of approach and then back into a energy efficiency demand response approach. And so there's this kind of balance that happens between the supply side and then the demand side of the grid. And what we're seeing right now is a shift away from the supply side and into the demand side and so. You know as a project developer looking to provide value to an owner. Uh, you know. Comes up the conversation of different ways of approaching energy efficiency or energy projects. So energy efficiency is one of them. Use less energy. If you don't use as much, you don't even need to generate the renewable energy. If if you have a means to. Put your building through a demand response program. Do that. It's a way that utilities see benefit from. You know owners and then? What was the other thing was energy storage. Another huge impact to the grid, right? So the ability to store energy when it's cheap and easy to make and dispatching it when it's expensive and difficult to get and so. Between those 3 levers, those are things to keep top of mind when it comes to. Capital investments being made that take 10/15/20 years to pay back, really ask yourself, you know, how does this lend itself to the energy future of tomorrow and. You know, is financing a solar PPA, you know the right move right now or maybe not maybe. Looking into, you know, open items on the deferred maintenance list and seeing how those can impact your energy profile. And so as designers, developers, I encourage you to collaborate with. The people that specialize in this stuff, and you know, there's really two benefits of that. One is. You get to, you know, scope up your projects. Especially those that are in the mechanical. Uh. HVAC world. And you know, get help finding funding that has links to to climate action and greenhouse gas reduction and, you know, California Energy Commission initiatives. But the second benefit of this is this is more towards the building owners is being able to highlight how your deferred maintenance projects and. You know how conventional air conditioning can actually be the best answer to decarbonization in many ways? You know when seeking out green initiatives and and and meeting the needs of your stakeholders and so. And you know that that's kind of the message today, but you know, I want. People that walk away inspired knowing that these somewhat traditional. Building retrofit projects are actually serving real great need. When it comes to the energy grid and. What they are looking for and and what they'll fund. So appreciate your attention and if you have any questions or want to collaborate on a project, I'd be happy to connect with you. Shoot me an e-mail, drop a comment. Leave the question and I'll continue to kind of post these videos as a means of dialogue and. Being able to brainstorm on how to make your project better, or maybe getting some of the right questions asked. So thank you and we'll see you next time.
