By: Nick Montoni, Senior Program Director for Policy & Markets

Last week, the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center attended RE+, the nation’s biggest conference for business leaders in solar, storage, hydrogen, wind, microgrid, and even more energy technologies.

Managing Director for Policy & Markets Autumn Proudlove spoke on a panel hosted by the Smart Electric Power Alliance about load growth, alongside an expert from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Autumn discussed trends in load growth, how state and local governments can respond, and the wide range of solutions to demand challenges.

Senior Program Director for Policy and Markets Nick Montoni spoke on a panel about how to use renewables to support a resilient grid, hosted by the German Business Representative in the United States. Nick shared perspectives on policy and market structures that would avoid curtailing overbuilt renewables.

The conference was full of life and energy (pun intended), with 40,000 dedicated solar, storage, and other energy technology leaders coming together to discuss shared priorities and opportunities. The energy community showed up in full force, seemingly in spite of any headwinds or challenges to the industries.

While there were many discussions about a range of topics: residential energy installations, workforce development, standards and codes for new technologies, state and local advocacy, siting and permitting, load growth, international collaboration, and many more, three big themes emerged:

• Resilience: both the energy industry and the grid need to be more resilient and able to pivot at a moment’s notice; business leaders, manufacturers, and thought leaders at the conference were all bullish on emphasizing the importance of storage in backing up the grid, improving the value of solar, and expanding the work and expertise of the industry
• Affordability: electricity prices are going up and technology prices are going up for all kinds of reasons, including tariffs, growth in electricity demand, labor costs, canceled projects, and other uncertainties. But solar, wind, and storage are cheap and easy to deploy now. In order to make electricity more affordable, solar, wind, and storage are inexpensive generation options in the short term.
• 50 state strategy: everyone at the conference emphasized again and again the role of state governments and state leadership in supporting the clean energy industry. NCCETC couldn’t agree more; that’s why we track and analyze energy policy across all 50 states and all U.S. territories to see who is leading the way, understand and share best practices, and see where new opportunities are emerging across markets.

Overall, RE+ 2025 was an inspiring and energizing conference. Clean energy businesses of all kinds from all over the country are ready to lead and deploy in order to make energy more affordable and abundant.