I'm not entirely sure what solution you are proposing here, but much of this sounds unfortunately a lot like the old (and false) narrative of DERs vs. utility-scale solutions. We need both - DERs are great but they simply won't cut it if we take climate change seriously. We wrote a blog post on this last year in response to a NYT article that highlighted this false dichotomy: https://rmi.org/clean-energy-is-not-a-zero-sum-game/
I agree that narrative isn't useful, but this definitely isn't that. This is about how the the distribution grid is getting very expensive and moves slowly, which will limit the speed and penetration of electrification. It asserts that DERs can assist with this by reducing peak capacity on existing distribution grid assets, making room for new capacity. It also highlights the natural tension between DERs and monopoly distribution utilities. It definitely doesn't make the case that we don't need utility-scale RE and storage. In fact, it highlights how even those solutions are looking for direct off-takers that allow for monetization of their output to skip the distribution grid.
I'm not entirely sure what solution you are proposing here, but much of this sounds unfortunately a lot like the old (and false) narrative of DERs vs. utility-scale solutions. We need both - DERs are great but they simply won't cut it if we take climate change seriously. We wrote a blog post on this last year in response to a NYT article that highlighted this false dichotomy: https://rmi.org/clean-energy-is-not-a-zero-sum-game/
I agree that narrative isn't useful, but this definitely isn't that. This is about how the the distribution grid is getting very expensive and moves slowly, which will limit the speed and penetration of electrification. It asserts that DERs can assist with this by reducing peak capacity on existing distribution grid assets, making room for new capacity. It also highlights the natural tension between DERs and monopoly distribution utilities. It definitely doesn't make the case that we don't need utility-scale RE and storage. In fact, it highlights how even those solutions are looking for direct off-takers that allow for monetization of their output to skip the distribution grid.