Announcing DERVOS '25 Agenda
It's going to be the best one yet
We’re psyched to announce the content framework for DERVOS this year. We’ll start in this post with an overview of what you can expect to see and hear, and then follow up with deep dives on each panel and a full roster of guests. We just gotta say… this is going to be the best show yet. If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, you really should before we sell out.
The time is now for DERs to have their moment. Load growth is back in the US, and yet our existing institutions and playbooks are struggling to meet the challenge. Long interconnection cues, rising delivery prices, and massive capacity shortfalls with no end in sight.
Despite whatever headwinds currently exist for our space, it’s only accelerating as DERs are proving to be the key to solving our grid woes. In fact, we’ve never been more bullish on DERs.
That’s why we want to spend the day highlighting the incredible innovation in our space and the myriad ways in which DERs are meeting this challenge now, not in theory. We’ll do that through a series of ThunDERdomes (they’re way too rad to be called “panels”), 3-4 showcases of some of the most incredible projects and products out there today, a community sourced keynote, and a fireside chat with Jigar Shah and someone special. In addition, we’ll be featuring 5-10 of the top early stage DERs companies in a new segment called “Demo Day.” Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:
ThunDERdomes
Big DERs Energy: Hear directly from folks in the heart of the exploding data center industry on how hyper-scalers are turning to DERs to lower costs, increase reliability, and get online faster than traditional mechanisms are currently allowing.
Deploying and Orchestrating GWs of Distributed Power: Distributed, topdown, deregulated, or regulated, grid operators across the country now want to have VPPs at their disposal not as a side project, but because they can perform better than traditional resources. We’ve put together a crew from across the spectrum: forward-thinking utilities, companies with GWs of distributed capacity under management, and more.
Plug-in DERs Don’t Need Your Permission: What do you mean permits? Just plug that solar and battery right into the load! Germany has deployed GWs of balcony solar systems, but that’s only the edge of what’s possible. Plug-in DERs may just dwarf all other DERs one day due to their speed and ease to deploy. We’re hosting a discussion on how we can open up one of the most exciting new categories in the energy world in the US from frontline leaders making it happen.
Domestic Energy Dominance and the Electro-state: But what does this all mean for us globally? China is kicking our ass, fast becoming the first electro-state and leaving petro-states in the dust. They dominate >80% of solar and storage supply chains and are deploying faster than anyone. But we invented those technologies! And we can never count out the American Spirit.
Look out for more updates soon on what amazing people will be on these panels, what the showcases will be, who our special guest with Jigar is, details on the keynote, and which early stage companies will be demo’ing.
Above all, we strive to make sure you hear things at DERVOS that you can’t hear anywhere else, making this a truly “must see” event. We think you’ll leave the day asking yourselves what we’ve been asking: what if DERs were never meant to be this cutesy stuff at the “edge” of the grid? What if they were always meant to be the core driver of and key unlock for building the grid of the future?
See you on Governor’s Island!
DERTF