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and politicians that struggle to plan beyond the next election, the "Big Grid" that powers our modern world is outdated and in dire need of an upgrade.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.

Bill Nussey takes readers to mud huts in Africa, an off-grid farm in California, and a rural school in the mountains of Puerto Rico to uncover the underlying patterns of technology and the business model innovations of the local energy revolution. He shares stories and insights from some of the industry's brightest visionaries and from leaders of the most cutting-edge startups, bringing it all together into an actionable framework to help accelerate this transition.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781732544659
Publisher:	AnEnergyProject, LLC
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	434
File size:	7 MB

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