Schneider, investors push to speed up US microgrids

Bloomberg

Betting on growing demand to finance and support mini power plants, Schneider Electric SE said that it was partnering with investors to launch a new company focussed on microgrids for small and medium-sized US businesses.
Investors led by Jeff Ubben’s new sustainable
investment firm Inclusive Capital Partners and clean energy-focussed Huck Capital, will back the partnership. Having reliable, sustainable access to renewable power should be a top corporate priority for both small and large companies in the
coming years. Local electric grids offer potential stability in both service and pricing, which are increasingly volatile amid the global push to electrify transport and blackouts related to climate change-driven storms and wildfires.
“In the next 20 years as a planet we’re going to use three times as much electricity as we do today — that’s the minimum,” Schneider Electric Chief Innovation
Officer Emmanuel Lagarrigue said. Large companies like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google have been able to
access power purchase agreements that let them
exclusively buy up electricity from solar or wind farms,
but high upfront costs have proved a barrier for smaller companies, buildings and hospitals that might also want their own supplies.