The Community Storage Initiative 2016 Leadership Forum
In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that overall interest in energy storage is rapidly accelerating. From the introduction of the Tesla ‘Powerwall’ to a recent RMI Report entitled “The Economics of Demand Flexibility”, there is an emerging consensus that the country needs a wide variety of dynamic energy storage resources. At the same time, the Community Solar business model has experienced growing acceptance by the electric utility industry as a valid renewable production strategy. These realizations have led directly to the recent announcement that NRECA, NRDC, EEI, APPA and PLMA have launched a coordinated market development effort entitled ‘The Community Storage Initiative’. Following the recent release of The Brattle Group research, “The Hidden Battery” (sponsored by NRECA, NRDC and PLMA), The Community Storage Initiative is an inclusive national market development collaborative that has garnered the support of the electric utility industry, the environmental community, the renewable energy industry and the public policy community.
This Leadership Forum is designed to engage you as leaders in a productive dialogue on how we can best make use of the Initiative to further our mutual goals. Discussion will include:
- Implementing cost-effective community storage technologies NOW - electric water heaters, electric vehicles, batteries, ice storage, space heat and other behind and in front of the meter storage technology!
- What can The Community Storage Initiative do for you?
- How can we engage consumers and create messaging around the concept of “community storage”?
- What role can CSI play in advocacy, the ability to speak with one voice, and the ability to collect data on the industry?
- How do we build a Community Storage network to share research and business models?
- What are the next steps? Where do we go from here?