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We don’t need to look very hard to see that the future of energy is distributed. The price of renewable energy continues to fall in Australia and the rate of deployment continues to increase. This is because of reducing system prices, increasing network and energy costs, and new financing options.

This progress is being made despite considerable head-wind, including the roll-back of state-based Feed-in Tariff subsidies, a thereview of the Renewable Energy Target, and the future of the Carbon Pricing Mechanism, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency all under a cloud.

Solar PV is clearly head of the renewables class. I was interested to hear that Chinese manufacturer Jinko has recently taken solar module costs below 50c per watt. This is a real break-through and some analysts are forecasting the price will be below 40c per watt within a few years (note that this is for module prices, not panel or system prices).

While everyone refers to Germany when talking about deployment of solar, did you know that in the last 18 months the USA has installed more solar than in the previous 30 years combined. The trends in Australia are similar. For example, at the recent Power and Gas conference in Perth, a lot of industry discussion was concerned with the “unprecedented” growth of PV in the state and the effect it was having on the market.

One of the arguments that is trotted out against renewable energy in Australia is that it can’t deliver ‘base load’ power. As it happens maximum solar energy production generally coincides with high air-conditioning use, and there’s good evidence that wind energy significantly reduced spot electricity prices during the recent heat waves on the East Coast.

It was recently reported in Renew Economy magazine that Horizon Power is pondering the end of the centralized grid. In many of the regional towns it services a combination of renewable and battery technology is lower than their cost of supply with conventional technology.

While renewables and batteries are changing the way the utility industry supplies energy services, the opportunities translate directly to the demand side of the equation. Every Energy Manager and Facility Manager will be paying close attention.

Along with renewables, the other important distributed energy technologies on the demand side are co-generation and tri-generation systems, central energy plans for chilled water and heating water, and, traditional on-site generators for demand response and backup energy supply.

These technologies coupled with the shift toward dynamic and unbundled utility pricing; smarter buildings and appliances; and access to real-time energy and water usage information is helping to reduce businesses’ dependence on base load power and take advantage of the lower energy costs from renewables.

As we see more and more distributed energy technologies in commercial property, and less dependence on utility supplied services, there will need to be an accompanying shift of expertise and monitoring and management systems to effectively leverage the technology.

Our distributed energy future is just around the corner, and it will be fascinating to see what it means for the utility industry and energy strategy for business in Australia. Frankly, we can’t wait.