04 Sep ETS@Austin Today

This morning Zpryme began another excellent, thought-provoking Energy Thought Summit (ETS) event in downtown Austin. In keeping with the ETS fun, engaging and educational vibe, Austin Symphony violinist, Caleb Hans, provided a fiery, musical launch for the day. Here’s a run-down of the keynote address and panels that followed the music:

Keynote Bob Powell (photo), SunEdison, President for North America, declared that we’re in the biggest transformation in energy now – and solar is at the center! Three major factors are driving the trend: lower costs, increased performance and storage capabilities. Prices of solar PV are expected to drop by about one third by 2020. Since 2008, module efficiency has increased by approximately 50%. Electric vehicle battery technology can also be used for solar electric storage systems. Worldwide trends like China’s and India’s rapidly increasing energy consumption, political turmoil over fossil fuels and the environmental impacts of fossil fuels are pushing us toward solar as the cheapest source of energy. We’re at, or near the tipping point as cost, technical and social trends make solar the biggest energy player.

Utilities panel featured representative from Austin Energy, ERCOT, CPS and the PUC considering challenges, opportunities and the 10-year outlook for their organizations. Challenges include organizational culture shifts, evolving demands on the electric grid and big data analytics. Engaging customers in demand-response with smart technologies, collaboration with other service providers like cable/Wi-Fi, harnessing electric vehicles, creation of more sustainable business models were presented as opportunities for utilities. In the next 10 years, ERCOT and CPS see much more interaction with customers through smart meters, Austin Energy is focusing on customer experience and the PUC is “ready to try new things.”

Mayors panel brought four Austin area city leaders to the stage. The mayors of Austin, Cedar Park, Kyle and San Marcos are all keenly aware that Austin is the fastest growing metro in the US currently and our challenges are regional. (Interestingly, San Marcos is the fastest growing individual city, while Cedar Park is fourth in the US.) Besides energy, the two big issues they focused on are 1.) water – it's the “new currency in Texas” – 2.) transportation. The good news is that communication and cooperation between Central Texas cities seems generally to be working now.

Autonomous Transportation Systems panel debated the feasibility and progress toward self-driving vehicles, like Google Drive projected for release in 2017. One panelist was of the opinion that we're pretty close to workable on-road systems deployment, while the others thought more needs to be done on the human behavior mimicry and scare factor issues for human passengers when high speed autonomous vehicles are very close together. A 1997 demo of autonomous drive vehicles apparently seriously scared the then US House Technology and Science committee chair. Currently, we're also seeing the rise of computers assisting human drivers as they travel down the road especially in luxury vehicles.