Lauren Sallata (left) and Dan Silver (right).“We are known for consumer product goods, and the reality of our business is that it has completely transformed,” says Lauren Sallata, chief marketing officer for Panasonic Corporation of North America.
A McKinsey Global Institute study from 2013 identified the 12 most disruptive emerging technologies that could affect trillions over the next decade — renewable energy and energy storage among them. Reading the report, Sallata and her colleagues realized that Panasonic in North America was involved in nine of those technologies.
“The more that we talked to customers and internal leadership, the more we realized that these disruptive technologies are impacting every industry,” Sallata says. This prompted a new research series called Moving Forward that surveyed senior technology decision makers.
Almost three in five of the companies represented in the study intend to invest in renewable energy technologies in the near future. Respondents also weighed in on how soon battery storage for renewables could go mainstream.
We recently caught up with Sallata and subject matter expert Dan Silver, vice president in Panasonic’s Eco Solutions company, to find out more about what the study results mean for senior technology decision makers across industries — and for Panasonic in North America.
Who was surveyed for Moving Forward, and what was the scope?
Lauren Sallata: We fielded it in January and March 2018 in the US and Canada, which makes up part of our North American region. It included 200 CTOs as well as other senior technology decision-makers in organizations with at least 200 employees.
It was across multiple industry verticals in solution areas — building and construction, energy and utilities manufacturing logistics, some service and hospitality. Then we looked at it from the vectors of technology around sustainable energy, energy storage, cloud, mobile, Internet of Things, robotics, advanced materials, 3-D printing, AI, and autonomous vehicles. The pace of change is on a very steep curve right now.
How did you get involved, Dan?
Dan Silver: My involvement was on the solar and the storage side. I was brought in after the research was organized to review it. I supported Lauren and her team as they were digesting this and saying, “Does this match with what you’re seeing on the front lines of the business?”
What were the main takeaways about renewable energy technologies?
Sallata: Renewable energy was one of the top adopted disruptive technologies along with mobile devices, applications, and commerce-driven solutions — and all were in the cloud leveraging the Internet of Things.
There were other big takeaways. Nearly half the companies we surveyed have already invested in renewable energy technologies. Then 24% of decision-makers believe it will take five years until battery storage of renewable energy goes mainstream. Energy storage is playing a larger role in sustainable energy growth than even things like government subsidies.
Were those results surprising to you, Dan?
Silver: One of the things that was surprising was that 41% said it will take 10 years. I’d talk to our salespeople in the US on the residential side, and it’s so chaotic in the Northeast, depending on what state you’re in. But the California guys said, “We’d better be at 70% in five years.”
What’s happening on the commercial side?
Silver: One of our guys said, “If you’re in California, the state is mandating that utilities play fair and be encouraging of storage. But if you’re in a state that’s a high electrical utility-dependent industry state, like let’s say Nevada or Arizona, you’re going to see a fight for who is controlling that storage, that solar.”
It’s not that the utilities don’t want alternative energy, they just don’t want it to be based in the home because they’re losing revenue. If they’re building at commercial scale, they’re holding onto revenue streams. From an economic point of view, that makes sense, and it plays out in the legislature.
Did the survey respondents identify challenges hindering renewable energy growth?
Sallata: The challenges hindering growth were affordable materials and, according to the responses, that would account for less than half of the total energy produced in the next four years. The other biggest challenge was lack of skilled employees in the building and construction and energy utility industries.
What did Panasonic glean from that?
Silver: From a manufacturer’s point of view, there’s an understanding that one size does not fit all. Therefore, if we’ve been building solar panels for residences that have limited space and want to get to net zero in the next three or five years, that requires one type of product. If we’re putting panels in fields to have backup power during high-usage times for farmers, that’s another type of product.
We have to be more nimble in designing and sourcing materials, and frankly be more than an engineering-driven company. From a materials point of view, we’ve been looking to partner with people or diversify from our strongest areas of battery technology, storage technology, even solar technology.
How about the skilled workforce challenge?
Silver: We’ve been doing a lot more educating, both here in the US and in Canada, on how to install storage, check storage, and monitor it from remote distances. One of the things we’re doing is dialing up the webinars for installers. If they’re not in the business of storage today, we can enable it.
The other thing we want to do is support industry training efforts. We are working with the Home Builders Institute to get more involved in their training initiatives, particularly indoor environmental quality. That will also spill into solar and storage down the road.
Ontario has the second highest use of solar and storage in North America behind California. They have a tremendous opportunity to make shifts in the workforce. The skills you need to do a ground-mount installation are different from the skills for rooftops, but you can teach people to do both if they’re willing.
Given the study results and the conversations you’re both having, where is renewable energy and storage headed?
Silver: When you get to the C-suite, there are champions intellectually and emotionally, but from a financial perspective they might not be the champion. Some of the more aggressive smaller companies looking for low-hanging fruit on commercial renewable energy projects are helping us find the people in larger organizations to talk to who understand the financial payoff.
Sallata: Across all the industries we surveyed, moving to renewable energy is a priority. And they indicated that they’re looking at in investing in other cost-saving innovations that save energy — efficient lighting, heat, and cooling.
There is collective recognition from those surveyed that it’s change that needs to happen.
