The opportunities being unleashed by distributed renewable power generation and the fast growing power storage sector are grabbing the attention of mainstream media and the general public. The BBC is the latest major news outlet to cover these trends in a business article on energy storage and it’s implications for utilities, the power sector and consumers. Though there is perhaps some hype and a few extreme claims such as “the era of free electricity”, the emerging technologies and business models seem to be catching the attention of journalists, policy makers and the public. This is an exciting and positive signal for localized renewable power as this interest and attention will be useful in ensuring that the regulatory frameworks are in place, that consumers are informed and ready for adoption, that investors and capital are attracted to the market, and of course that innovators and skilled engineers focus on this market. All these pieces will ensure continued growth of this sector and help distributed generation reach it’s potential.

Another of the discussion points that journalists and commentators are bringing up is the negative impact these fundamental shifts will have on the current power market players, and in particular the power utilities. Though it is true that utilities are often conservative and restrained in their strategies, it may be too early to claim their demise. Not only are they well placed, well capitalized and well motivated to capture many of the emerging opportunities, several utilities, such as SDG&E, are at the forefront of emerging technologies. Distributed renewable generation and storage will clearly create many winners (and consequently some losers as well) but for the time being the only sure winners will be consumers and everyone else still has everything to play for.