The year our energy future gets real?

Happy 2018? Pardon me if I feel tentative about that sentiment after the rollercoaster that was last year. “Range anxiety” may be out on this year’s list (see below) but what about a generalized sense of doom?

We may be living in a dystopian novel (or perhaps my Twitter feed just makes it seem so). However, in energy, this also feels like the year when futuristic things we can’t quite explain (see “blockchain” and also, “cheap batteries”) finally get real.

No doubt there will be new firedrills (“price formation,” anyone?). But increasingly, clean energy companies are acting like the winners they are in the marketplace, and nearly everyone — from policymakers to “Big Energy” (née, “Big Oil”) to…conservative voters in Ohio — is starting to pay attention.

So, yes, happy 2018; embrace “resilience” and let the “new ideas” flow.

This post originally appeared on Medium.

It's a new and complicated year

Perhaps 2016 should have taught us not to make predictions. But what fun is that?

This year my In/Out list indicates the energy landscape is going to be…complicated. Contradictory, unexpected, and disruptive too. Yes, I do believe we live in a world where both “natural monopolies” are out and “electricity re-regulation” is in. The democratization and decentralization already transforming information may finally hit old-school energy this year. Utilities might never be “out” exactly, but the rise of consumer-centric business models and corporate renewable buyers (also, by the way, “in” last year) is accelerating.

Even though “facts” are out, I’m optimistic. It’s going to be an interesting 2017. Start working on your avatar now.

This post originally appeared on Medium.