Giving Compass' Take:

• Jean Haggerty explains that there is increased interest in and movement around microgrid-plus-storage installations as companies look to sustainable, reliable power solutions. 

• How can funders work to ensure that new power installations are environmentally sustainable and equitable? 

• Learn about the high cost of planned power outages for low-income families. 

Increasingly, U.S. companies are concluding that they need the type of business continuity, cost predictability and sustainability goal-aligned energy solutions that microgrid-plus-storage installations offer.

Heading into 2020, the energy services provider Veolia is managing a pipeline of microgrid projects valued at more than $1 billion. "Our pipeline is predominantly commercial and industrial opportunities, with a small component of federal work," said Jack Griffin, vice president at Veolia North America.

In the year ahead, Veolia expects to take on more commercial and industrial (C&I) projects, such as the 14-megawatt combined heat and power microgrid that it developed at New York’s Hudson Yards, he said.

Navigant Research, a Guidehouse company, in 2018 predicted that the global market for microgrids would reach almost $31 billion by 2027, with the most rapid growth coming from C&I installations.

Because the pool of invested capital in the microgrid-plus-storage space is so varied, it is unlikely that any single solution will emerge as a clear victor in the near future. In the long run, however, the expectation is that the most sustainable microgrid technologies will gain the upper hand, said Jon Yoder, managing director and head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Renewable Power Group in New York.

"The two largest changes that can accelerate microgrid deployments are availability of financing and streamlined regulatory approval with the utilities," said Angelo Campus, founder and CEO of BoxPower, a company that makes turnkey solar power and battery units that can fit into a shipping container.

Boutique lenders, such as Constant Energy Capital, are already financing residential and commercial microgrid systems, and the expectation is the development of solar-lease type financing options in the microgrid space will have a big impact on deployment in the coming years.

Read the full article about microgrids by Jean Haggerty at GreenBiz.