31 Jul ETS@Chicago In The Media
EnergyWire
CHICAGO — Even three years removed from running Exelon Corp., John Rowe is still among the few people who needs no name badge or introduction at electric industry events.
Rowe, who grew up on a Wisconsin farm and attended a one-room schoolhouse, spent more than three decades as a utility chief executive. He’s best known for taking over troubled Commonwealth Edison Co. in the late 1990s and overseeing the transformation into Exelon, the nation’s largest utility owner and operator of the largest fleet of nuclear plants.
CHICAGO — The centralized bulk power system, like the century-old monopolies that built it and own it, have come to be seen as anachronisms in an industry abuzz with technologies such as rooftop solar and energy storage.
But the chief executive of the Midwest’s largest utility remains a believer in the grid.
BloombergBusiness
The chief executive officers of Commonwealth Edison Co. and EnerNOC Inc. will join Exelon Corp. Chairman Emeritus John W. Rowe at the Energy Thought Summit.
08:00 (09:00 EDT) in Chicago. Through 07/23.
(Bloomberg) — As tougher environmental rules prompt wider use of wind and solar power, small, nimble natural gas plants will be needed to ensure the lights stay on.
Combined-cycle gas plants are easier to switch on and off than coal or nuclear generators, John Rowe, chairman emeritus for Exelon Corp., said in an interview Wednesday at the Energy Thought Summit in Chicago. That feature makes it easier for gas- fired power to fill in the gaps when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.
New York Times
In the race to develop technologies to slow climate change, the world is off track.
That’s the latest assessment from the International Energy Agency, which presented a bleak outlook ahead of the planned climate summit meeting in Paris this December, where countries rich and poor are hoping to agree on a strategy to slow global warming.
Idea Forge
The nation’s energy leaders converged on Chicago for the Energy Thought Summit (ETS) yesterday to discuss ways to navigate the new energy frontier. While leaders offered different ideas on ways to foster energy innovation, there was one resounding consensus: Chicago’s energy ecosystem is extremely more robust than it was 10 years ago, and that ecosystem has become a major portal for innovation in energy.
Forbes
The United States missed an opportunity to fuel its renewables revolution at a fraction of the cost when it failed to put a price on carbon, John Rowe, former CEO and chairman emeritus of Exelon Corp, said Wednesday in Chicago.
“As far as I’m concerned the renewables industry is built on the proposition that we should always do the most expensive thing first,” Rowe said at the Energy Thought Summit at Chicago’s Symphony Center. “Whereas a carbon tax or cap and trade would have encouraged doing the cheapest things first.”
Energy startups can increase their chance of success by ensuring they offer a profit incentive to utilities, John Rowe, former CEO and chairman emeritus of Exelon said Wednesday in Chicago.
“Utilities are very obstinate creatures,” Rowe said at the Energy Thought Summit at Chicago’s Symphony Center. “We know how to say no, and we know how to say yes and then not do anything. We’re very good at inertia. And the reason for that is not that we’re enduringly stupid. Some of my favorite people run utilities. The reason is most of these new ideas have no profit incentive in them for the utility at all. We just do them because the regulators and politicians want them. To us it’s just placating the Gods.”
From a rapid initial acceleration, it appears the electric vehicle revolution has paused this year to catch its breath. From 17,000 vehicles in 2011, sales jumped to 52,600 in 2012, 97,500 in 2013 and 123,000 last year. However, for the first six months of this year, the sales numbers are essentially flat: 54,300 EVs have moved off the lot (or out of the Tesla showroom) compared with 56,300 for the first six months of last year.
Midwest Energy News
The atmosphere at a gathering of energy experts in Chicago this week was ebullient, with speakers describing a groundswell of innovation that promises to revolutionize the way energy is delivered on the grid.
Until 2012 John Rowe served as CEO of Exelon Corp., one of the country’s biggest power companies and parent of utility company ComEd. He was known as acolorful and prominent energy chief executive, who invested in wind, solar and the smart grid while also wielding his considerable political clout to aggressively champion nuclear power.
The Blade
As tougher environmental rules prompt wider use of wind and solar power, small, nimble natural gas plants will be needed to ensure the lights stay on.
Combined cycle gas plants are easier to switch on and off than coal or nuclear generators, John Rowe, chairman emeritus for Exelon Corp., said in an interview this week at the Energy Thought Summit in Chicago. That feature makes it easier for gas-fired power to fill in the gaps when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.