Freeing Energy: How Innovators Are Using Local-scale Solar and Batteries to Disrupt the Global Energy Industry from the Outside In

by Bill Nussey

Overview

The transition to clean energy is moving far too slowly. Trapped by a century of fossil fuel investments and politicians that struggle to plan beyond the next election, the "Big Grid" that powers our modern world is outdated and in dire need of an upgrade. Freeing Energy offers a new and faster path towards a clean energy future-one that is more reliable, more equitable, and cheaper. Just like personal computers eclipsed mainframes, millions of solar rooftops and small battery systems are challenging every assumption about our century-old, centralized electric grid. These small-scale "local energy" systems are deeply disruptive because they are based on fast-moving technologies, not fuels. Driven by a new generation of innovators and genuinely competitive markets, smaller systems are faster to build, easier to finance, cleaner to operate, and they create far more jobs than large-scale projects.

Freeing Energy is a deeply researched, actionable guide for anyone that cares about the future of energy-from startups, policymakers, investors, and utility leaders to the families and communities that want cleaner, cheaper energy today.

The clean energy transition is the single biggest economic opportunity in history-bigger than the industrial revolution and bigger than the computing revolution. Nussey's broad coverage of systems large and small, as well as different geographies around the world, brings the whole situation into perfect perspective to drive both optimism and action.

--- Bill Gross, founder of Idealab and cleantech companies Heliogen, Energy Vault, and Carbon Capture

Nussey is spot on about the economic opportunity that comes with the shift to renewable energy, with a compelling angle about the role of local energy and action each of us can take. The clean energy transition is accelerating faster and further than most models predicted, and this book is a useful and timely read for anyone who wants to be part of it.

--- Jules Kortenhorst, CEO, RMI

Nussey has grasped a fundamental truth about the transition to a zero-carbon economy: energy is no longer about capturing and exploiting resources, it's about technology, speed, innovation, and agility.

--- Michael Liebreich, CEO of Liebreich Associations, and Founder and former CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Freeing Energy, an inspiring and practical guide for enacting an energy revolution is a must read for aspiring entrepreneurs and anyone that wants to understand how technologies and innovators are upending systems to improve the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

--- Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and Founder of Acumen, and author of Manifesto for a Moral Revolution

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781732544642
Publisher:	Anenergyproject, LLC
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Pages:	434
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

BILL NUSSEY is a career tech CEO with three successful exits, including an IPO. He has also been an investor with venture capital firm, Greylock. After IBM acquired his company, he became IBM's VP Corporate Strategy, helping lead the company's overall strategy. As a CEO, his companies have raised more than $400 million, created thousands of jobs and billions in shareholder value. The journey to write this book began with his 2017 TED talk, which grew into 100+ articles and, most recently, the popular Freeing Energy podcast. He received a degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Editorial Reviews

A passionate, valuable, and detailed blueprint for remaking the shape of everyday energy production... The author is passionate in advocating for change, but he's also unfailingly realistic. Skeptics ... will find Nussey a doggedly clear-eyed guide to what he rightly calls "the treacherous divide between wild-goose-chases and billion-dollar opportunities." He tackles the implementation of these alternatives on every level of manufacture and production, and his emphasis on individual options will deeply engage readers who feel trapped on the treadmill of big energy.

- Kirkus Reviews

Freeing Energy is one of the most encouraging and inspiring books I've read in years. Nussey is comprehensive and convincing in his portrayal of the relentless technological innovation driving down costs for small-scale solar and battery solutions, and the ability of these systems to improve energy and social equity in the US and around the world.

--- Scott Murphy, Chief Investment Officer at Advantage Capital, and former US Congressman

From the Publisher

2021-09-17
An energy book discusses the many possible alternatives to fossil fuels.

At its heart, Nussey’s wide-ranging work on the renewable and alternative energy possibilities is about disruption—of the status quo and the complacency of the fossil fuel industry. He cites a well-known series of such disruptions even from comparatively recent technological history: The internet decimated newspapers; email and services like FedEx largely replaced snail mail as a means of communication and delivery; electric lights displaced gas lamps; and so on. “In each case, existing market structures were upended,” the author writes. “Enormous new companies emerged as incumbents became less relevant.” His book presents a wide array of possible disruptors to those existing market structures, fuels like “green hydrogen” and of course the ubiquitous “super-abundant electricity” designed to free millions of people living without access to cheap, easy energy. Nussey refers to this group of alternative sources as “fuels 2.0,” and he stresses that he’s talking about local energy: individuals, communities, and area businesses finally taking control of “one of the most essential parts of our lives—energy.” This small-scale, local focus stands in contrast to the current situation, where, as the author points out, energy is exclusively controlled. In most parts of the world, electricity services are monopolies, with only one company allowed to sell kilowatt hours. “With no competition,” he writes, “innovation is stifled and often non-existent.” Hence, the disruption represented by rooftop solar panels and “microgrids.” Nussey writes engagingly, and he’s strongest in the most crucial element of a book like this: lucidly and vigorously explaining the science and technology behind fuels 2.0. He’s interviewed many key players in the potential energy revolution, which he characterizes as both top-down and bottom-up: “The power industry is slowly (very slowly) shedding its roots as a fuel-driven, asset heavy, top-down business into something that is increasingly defined by the economics of technology.” He’s clear that one of the key aspects of that revolution is the refinement and widespread deployment of batteries and storage systems for the power generated by renewables. Batteries and storage systems are going to be a core part of the future of electric power, he writes, “be it a grid-scale wind farm, a community solar project, a solar rooftop, or a tiny system that can power a few LED lights in Africa after the sun goes down.” The author is passionate in advocating for change, but he’s also unfailingly realistic. Skeptics wary of overly idealistic daydreaming on the subject of clean energy will find Nussey a doggedly cleareyed guide to what he rightly calls “the treacherous divide between wild-goose-chases and billion-dollar opportunities.” He tackles the implementation of these alternatives on every level of manufacture and production, and his emphasis on individual options will deeply engage readers who feel trapped on the treadmill of big energy.

A passionate, valuable, and detailed blueprint for remaking the shape of everyday energy production.

Kirkus Reviews