Prosumers, electricity grids, and systemic change
Last week I wrote about some of the challenges we face when trying to integrate renewables into electricity systems. One of the key changes we’ve seen in the last few years is around where electricity is being generated and by who. Prices of solar photovoltaics have been falling rapidly (in fact, the current trend is that the price is halving every 13 months!), battery prices are dropping, and consumers are becoming more actively engaged in the energy system. They are becomin
Renewable energy from NZ to the UK
In February this year I moved back to the UK to take up a position at the University of Oxford to manage the recently funded Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy. Having spent five years living and working in New Zealand, and most of them leading the demand side research of the GREEN Grid research project (trying to better understand current patterns of household energy demand, the desire for and uptake of new energy technologies, and the impacts this may h
