Electricity consumption in the United States is forecast to rise over 20 percent by 2030.  Energy efficiency improvements and new generating capacity—from natural gas, coal, and renewable sources in particular—will help address this demand.  However, on the supply-side another option exists that can reduce large quantities of our individual demand on the electrical grid: distributed generation. Solar technology, both in the form of photovoltaics and concentrating solar power (CSP), continues to become more efficient, prevalent and affordable.  In fact, innovation in housing design may one day enable households to generate more electricity than they use—excess that they could feed back into the grid.

This week, the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon project finally arrived at the National Mall in Washington, DC.  This competition challenges college and university teams to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy efficient house they can.  One house, complete with 48 solar panels, is estimated to produce 75 percent of daily energy needs even on a cloudy day.  And the innovations are not limited to solar.  For example, most houses have systems to use rainwater and reuse wash water for plants.  The houses are judged on a selection of factors including market viability, energy balance and engineering.  They must even mimic typical household activities, such as having the television on for 6 hours each day.  While once considered by many an expensive fashion statement, demonstrations like these provide proof of concept for the technology.  And projects and policies are already in place to drive the economies of scale required to continue bringing down costs.

Strengthening and modernization of the electrical grid system is of course required.  But the nation must continue to provide tangible results in the area of energy generation.  Distributed generation, which does not demand energy from the grid’s largest electricity producers, provides an opportunity.  Over time, and with the right incentives—such as the existing 30 percent Federal tax credit on solar energy systems—to deploy new technology in new and existing buildings, and in local developments near to where it is used, distributed generation can reduce stress on the electrical grid and provide benefits to the consumer.

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