Virtual summit tackles future of home energy storage, tracking
Market research company Parks Associates held their virtual 'Smart Energy Summit' Thursday afternoon. Parks Associates specializes in emerging consumer technology products and services.
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Market research company Parks Associates held their first of three virtual 'Smart Energy Summit' sessions at midday Thursday. Parks Associates specializes in emerging consumer technology products and services.
Thursday's session titled 'Solar Power: Transformation of Home Energy' focused on the changes and challenges within the solar power market, including battery storage technology, devices & equipment as well as the electrical system as a whole.
As energy costs rise and outages become more common, consumers seek ways to track their energy consumption, reduce what they use, or generate their own.
As their data shows more homes transitioning into more sustainable energy sources, their session highlighted the potential growth for future consumer demand for at-home energy tracking technology to further manage energy consumption.
Parks Associates’ latest report “Solar and Storage: Opportunities in the Smart Home,” found that consumers are "concerned about high energy prices but still have low familiarity overall with solar panels. More than 60% of US internet households report their electricity costs are too high, which would benefit the market for solar solutions, but only 17% of US internet households report being very familiar with solar panels."
They dove into the uncertainty of what would be the specific catalyst that would further increase the adoption of smart energy products the most. Whether that answer would be rising energy costs, increased interest in climate change prevention, growth in electric vehicle adoption, or growth of the smart home industry was unknown.
They discussed the uncertainty of what would be the most significant energy storage trend within the next five years. Their possible answers included: Utility-scale storage by energy providers, residential storage and distributed energy strategies, or vehicle-to-load from fleets and individual households.
Their second of three sessions titled 'State of the Home Energy Management Market' is set for August 17.