Wall Street sees “green” in demand response, energy efficiency, and distributed generation. Will the industry step up?
Tom Brunetto is managing partner at Distributed Energy Financial Group (DEFG). He can be contacted at tbrunetto@defgllc.com.
Today’s energy utilities face an unprecedented number of challenges, including infrastructure needs, rising energy costs, public demands for environmental stewardship, and investor calls for a sustainable business model.
We recently conducted research to evaluate whether innovative solutions for meeting future energy needs such as demand response (DR), energy efficiency (EE), and alternative distributed generation (DG) (e.g., photovoltaic cells, wind, energy storage) could become a sustainable and viable part of the future energy infrastructure. Critical to whether the alternative solutions can become part of the future energy infrastructure is Wall Street’s view of utilities that pursue these options. Implementing the alternative solutions will require capital as well as an understanding of the risks.