Renewable energy will make life more complicated but could be a boon for the companies providing it.
COVER: UTILITIES
The year is 2051 and newly married, first-time homeowner Olivia is driving to work. (Olivia was one of the most popular baby names in 2020, and she has just turned 31.)
She parks her electric vehicle at an office building at 6:45 a.m. and plugs in her EV, getting a free charge at work. About half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. are still gasoline-powered, but there are enough EVs that it makes sense to get there early. Just after lunch, Olivia gets an alert on her phone that her car isn’t charging. On this scorching July day, the electric company needs the energy to meet peak cooling demand. She understands—and also understands the opportunity it offers, as she taps a “sell” button on an app. Her car starts to discharge electricity to the building’s battery, which will power the lights and air conditioning during peak hours, lowering the building’s total cost of operating by not relying on the grid.
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