I attended the DOE Grid Integration Workshop

The Grid Integration Workshop was an attempt by DOE to solicit input from industry insiders on what should be R&D priorities over the next few years. I made some great connections, and raised the profile of both elpipes and Ballistic Breakers.

There was a dearth of new ideas at the workshop, in my opinion. Though everyone seems to realize that the grid and transmission must change, the results of the breakout sessions was mostly the :same old, same old..." It drives me crazy to see all that horsepower focused on smart grid...better data...data security...pulling in weather forecasting...the need for better models. all that is important, and it is already happening! Except for a few ideas I managed to inject, such as the need to consider HVDC loops (because of their intrinsic redundancy), and elpipes (because how are we ever going to build the infrastructure we need overhead?) there was little that was out of the box.


I have so far found that US-based venture capital investors will not take an interest in the elpipe because it is "too big, too long term." I have therefore put my startup Electric Pipeline Corporation onto Wefunder: https://wefunder.com/elpipes 
in hopes that I can get started on this important (and expensive) development soon. It would help me move this forward if you will "follow" me on Wefunder; I expect the US Securities and Exchange Commission will be issuing rules by May that will allow me to raise funds though Wefunder (this is not legal yet, but by following EPC, you will help move me to the front of the queue when the final rules are announced).