
Generate Electricity Everywhere
Mar 23, 2009 - Spencer Reiss - Wired
Magazine
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Illustration: James Day |
Problem
Establishing local-scale power near end users ranks
high on everyone's spec list for Grid 2.0. That's
one reason Obama's stimulus plan contains a grant
that will reimburse property owners for 30 percent
of the cost of a solar energy system. But utilities—former
monopolies, after all—are reluctant to give up control
over their antique, accident-prone grid. And people
with enough rooftop real estate to squeeze out serious
juice balk at the hassle.
Solution
Create
a new class of energy service providers that act as
middlemen between power companies and large commercial
facilities with big rooftops. For instance, SunEdison
builds and maintains solar plants on the rooftops
of operations like Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, and Kohl's
in eight states. It's a win-win arrangement: Electric
companies get a trusted partner in power generation,
and businesses get green energy at a fixed, competitive
rate—without additional investment. The secret sauce
isn't photovoltaic panels; it's the networking gear,
sensors, and software that let a SunEdison control
room in California manage hundreds of solar sites
cost-effectively. And that means it's suited for scaling
up. Says Mark Culpepper, a veteran of Cisco Systems
who is now CTO of SunEdison: "Generating power anywhere
you can fit a panel totally changes the dynamic of
the energy market." Illustration: Lamosca
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