Photo Credit: Clean Energy Connections
The negawatt, possibly the only semi-cool term in smart grid, is getting a lot of attention these days. From the FERC ruling that a kilowatt shaved through demand response should be paid the same as a kilowatt generated, to the energy-efficiency disclosure legislation now popping up nationwide, saving energy is looking better for business than ever before.
At a panel on May 25, Greentech Media, Solar One and New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE) at Polytechnic Institute of New York University will look at value of a negawatt -- and what that word even means to different stakeholders -- both in New York City and beyond. To register, visit Clean Energy Connections.
Watch the recording of the live panel below. Visit the Clean Energy Connections LinkedIn group to discuss the event or ask new questions. You can also tweet about the broadcast using the hashtag #cleanNRGx.
The business proposition is vastly different whether you’re talking about increasing efficiency on the physical grid, as startups like Transphorm are trying to do, or cutting off 'vampire' appliances in the home like NYC ACRE graduate ThinkEco is doing with its Modlet smart plug.
Some utilities are actively involved in efficiency programs, especially at the commercial and industrial level, such as Consolidated Edison, but they cannot do it alone, which opens up the landscape to a range of startups that want to cash in on helping people save.
The panel will include Zack Schildhorn, Associate at Lux Capital Management (which has invested in Transphorm); Mei Shibata, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer for ThinkEco; Michael Gordon, Chief Executive Officer at Joule Assets; and David Pospisil, Manager, Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs for Consolidated Edison Company of New York. These industry luminaries will tease out where the best business cases are for efficiency -- and what it will take to make them in underserved markets, such as small commercial.
The topic is truly global, but a New York-centric discussion will allow us to identify solutions needed right here, such as the value for efficiency in a tenant-lessee relationship, which is a conundrum that is being worked out in major cities across the world.
There are areas where New York is leading, such as its Greener, Greater Buildings Plan in New York City, but also other areas where the regulators and stakeholders could arguably be more aggressive, such as increasing residential participation. “There are so many ways the markets in New York City are more advanced and more interesting,” said Michael Gordon, who founded CPower. “In so many ways, we are Neanderthals.”
The evening is the second event in the Clean Energy Connections series, which was developed in partnership with the Energy $mart Communities program of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and sponsored by NYSERDA, Loeb & Loeb LLP, and Con Edison’s Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs.
If you can’t make it to the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in Manhattan, Greentech Media will be streaming the discussion live and your comments can be part of the event. Leave questions below the article to have them asked to the panelists. Tune back in on May 25, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. ET to watch a live stream of the panel on Greentech Media's homepage, and right in this article. You can also tweet your questions to @CleanECnyc, #cleanNRGx during the panel discussion.