The History and Current Status of Distributed Renewables

Event Overview

In November, our Boulder County chapter welcomes Dr. Peter Lilienthal for a look at the history of distributed power.

Based on his 40+ year career looking at the economics of distributed power, Dr. Lilienthal will first discuss the evolution of distributed power’s technologies and markets. After discussing the current state of distributed power for energy access in developing countries and high penetration renewable power systems in remote areas and islands, the bulk of the talk will be on the potential for distributed power to harden the US grid by improving resilience and reducing the need for transmission expansion. In addition to the dramatic drop in the price of solar photovoltaics, new storage technologies promise to completely change the structure of the electric power industry.

Join us in person at our new venue, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder (UUCB). Arrive early for networking at refreshments. Plan to stay after the main presentation for Q&A.

About Our Speaker

Dr. Peter Lilienthal

Dr. Peter Lilienthal’s most recent full-time position was the Global Microgrid Lead for UL Solutions, LLC., from 2019 – 2022. For the last 3 years, he has been a private consultant to the distributed energy industry. He has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and currently serves on the partnership between Xcel Energy and the City of Boulder, CO, the Board of Micro Energy Credits, the Alaska Microgrid Group, COMET (Malaysia), and GoSun, and is a Senior Advisor to EarthSpark International. Previously, he was the CEO of HOMER Energy. Since 1992, he has been the developer of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s HOMER® hybrid power and microgrid optimization software, which has been used by over 250,000 energy practitioners in 193 countries. Dr. Lilienthal negotiated the license with NREL for HOMER Energy to be the sole worldwide commercialization licensee to distribute and enhance the HOMER model.

Dr. Lilienthal was the Senior Economist with International Programs at NREL from 1990 to 2007. He was one of the creators of NREL’s International and Village Power Program. He has a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He has been active in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency since 1978. This has included designing and teaching courses at the university level, project development of independent power projects, and consulting to industry and regulators. His expertise is in the design and economic and financial analysis of hybrid renewable and micro-grid projects.