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Bloomberg Future of Energy Summit

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The recent Bloomberg Future of Energy Summit brought together leading actors from across the globe, providing expert perspectives on a range of energy topics — power, transportation, regulation, finance and climate action. Here are insights and takeaways from two speakers: Michael Liebreich, BNEF Chairman of the Advisory Board, and Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Chief Strategy Officer for Schneider Electric.

Michael Liebreich, BNEF Chairman of the Advisory Board

Global clean investment slowed in 2016, but capacity up

  • 17 percent drop in  investment in 2016 (mostly in China), but renewable energy capacity still leads other generation investment by 2:1 globally
  • Installation of renewable technology continues to go up; e.g., US wind capacity up +262 percent from  2008-2016
  • Green bonds (a market that did not exist 10 years ago) keep growing, almost doubling from 2015-2016 to $95.7B

Business is driving clean energy transformation 

  • US corporate procurement of clean energy is up 5,150 percent cumulatively over last 8 yrs, reaching ~10.5 GW in 2016
  • Energy efficiency investment doubled from 2008-2015 — at $13B in 2015

Energy supply is fundamentally changing

  • More renewables mean more variable energy, added storage and interconnections
  • Demand-led flexibility markets are the aim, matching demand requirements with flexible technologies
     

Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Chief Strategy Officer for Schneider Electric 


Future electricity models anchored in decentralized generation and renewables

  • End users want to choose the source of supply, be able to react to price signals, and want to sell energy back to the grid
  • 70 percent of new generation capacity will be renewable by 2040
  • The cost of battery storage has decreased from ~$1,000 per kilowatt hour (2010) down to ~$300 per kilowatt hour (2016)
  • Solar is at grid parity in more than half of all countries; will reach grid parity in 80 percent of countries in 2017
  • Electric vehicle sales are expected to grow from ~$1M today to ~$450M in 2040

“From a technology standpoint, the rapid decrease in the cost of wind, solar and batteries will quickly change the way we generate, transport and consume electricity — a dramatic shift from a centralized system to a decentralized system.”
 

Microgrids will continue to gain momentum

  • Utilities, campuses and municipalities are leveraging microgrids to increase resiliency and improve the overall effectiveness of the power system
  • Microgrids that incorporate energy storage offer increased reliability and help solve for the intermittency of integrated renewable energy
  • The ability to island, or separate from the grid, enhances resiliency, helping to power campuses and small communities independent of the grid during an outage which is especially important to mission critical facilities.
  • Microgrid as a Service, a new business model that does not require any upfront capital investment by customers is emerging.
  • Schneider Electric is leading microgrid projects such as Oncor – which includes four autonomous and dynamic zones of control and includes PV solar, a Tesla Battery Energy Storage System, a microturbine, and diesel and propane backup generators

New financial models for renewable energy will grow

  • Energy management, procurement and sustainability teams are joining forces to buy green energy using new models such as offsite power purchase agreements
  • Schneider Electric now negotiates 40 percent of the market in North America for these corporate transactions for renewable energy

For more information on trends and the future of energy, get to know Active Energy Management or discover Schneider Electric Renewable Energy Purchasing Services and Microgrid Solutions.