TECHNOLOGY
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“ We ’ ve reached a tipping point where renewable energy generation and storage is cheaper than it ’ s ever been . It ’ s basically at parity with fossil fuels ”
— Candace Saffery Neufeld , CEO Alpha Energy
2010 and 2018 , while photovoltaic power fell by 73 % in the same period . “ We ’ ve seen extraordinarily positive trends in the energy space with renewable generation efficiency increasing alongside radical price drops ,” says Neufeld . “ But where the real technical challenge remains is how we distribute these new types of technologies .”
Alpha Energy ’ s focus , rather than on the generation of renewable energy , is on reinventing the distribution methods by which high-density communities without electricity access receive power . The traditional , centralised grid “ is over 100 years old now . It wasn ’ t built to have two-way communication or Edge Generation pushing into the grid and managing it ” says Neufeld . “ We have moved into the distribution area where we believe there ’ s lots of room for innovation . We want to clean up the grid , which means bringing more and more intermittent power into play , on a decentralised level .”
The disparity between innovation in distribution and innovation in generation and storage is only growing larger , she explains . “ These recent scaling trends that are happening in wind , solar and storage have definitely brought the
MARCH 2019