Future Energy: Zero Marginal Cost Society

Technological upheavals are reducing the marginal costs of many production processes to almost zero. Products and services are becoming increasingly cheaper in a world where 3D printers can produce entire houses along with furnishings and hotel guests are attended to by androids. In the foreseeable future, electricity from renewable energies will cost only about one cent per kilowatt-hour in this country. Our economic system is undergoing an epochal transformation: An economy of abundance is replacing one based on scarcity. New energy self-sufficient buildings are opening up new sectors in this so-called "zero-marginal-cost society" and showing opportunities related to housing, energy supply, and mobility. They offer their residents long-term stable and therefore predictable flat rents with an energy flat rate that includes not only heating and electricity but also e-mobility. Energy supply companies (EVUs), housing industry, and banks are finding new lucrative business models in this. Key Point: The Sun Energy self-sufficient buildings provide themselves with heat and supply the electricity for households and mobility - not as a theoretical calculation, but as a fact. They rely on the free and crisis-proof resource of the sun: photovoltaic modules and solar thermal collectors share roof surfaces and balcony railings. Long-term storage systems hold heat and electricity for the users. Garages and parking spaces are equipped with electric charging stations. These buildings can be up to 70 to 80 percent energy self-sufficient. The energy costs for such a building are also about 70 percent lower than a passive house. Despite their high energy independence, innovative solutions integrate these buildings into the public supply network: primarily to provide their electric and heat storage to regional EVUs for storing excess energy. This relieves the public grids and offers energy providers various new income streams beyond the delivery of heating fuels, ultimately providing them with a significant image boost. Excess Energy - Profits Instead of "Double" Costs When there is excess energy, supply companies often have only two options: either to shut down the facilities, resulting in still having to pay feed-in tariffs even though they cannot offer electricity to their customers, or to pay for the excess electricity to be fed into a foreign grid (negative market price). By utilizing the decentralized storage of energy self-sufficient buildings, network operators save these "double" costs and can profitably sell the stored energy. The same applies to the excess heat and electricity produced by the energy self-sufficient buildings. Novel Financing and Rental Models As a service provider for planning, installation, and operation, the EVU provides all energy technology for the self-sufficient buildings and also offers electric mobility. Over a period of 10 years, the energy provider can offer its services as an all-inclusive package at a fixed price. In this package, the calculated portion of the energy that needs to be purchased is specified: for example, if the building covers 70 percent of its heat and electricity needs from the sun, it obtains the remaining 30 percent from the energy provider's electricity or gas network. By planning ahead, cost-effective in-house production, and smart use of decentralized storage, the energy provider can minimize the costly portion and increase their own profits. Since the package integrates electricity supply, it protects the contractual relationship from competition from online providers. When future operating costs are included in the investment costs, completely new financing and rental models emerge: banks can promise their investors fixed, attractive returns over ten years, landlords can offer fixed flat rents that include not only the cost of living but also heating, electricity, and electric mobility as a flat rate. The model's attractiveness can be further enhanced by one or more electric vehicles as shared vehicles. In addition to the actual interest in basic provision of heat, electricity, and mobility, tenants benefit in many ways: the model offers security in terms of operating and ancillary costs, eliminating constant comparisons of the complex cost structures of electricity providers as well as the constant monitoring of the fuel gauge. Longer stays in the apartments result, turnover of tenants and the associated administrative effort, as well as potential disputes over billing, are eliminated. The model of energy self-sufficient buildings with their decentralized energy storage is as innovative as it is simple and clearly "smarter" than the so-called "smart grid," as larger amounts of electricity can be shunted in this way. They offer real opportunities in a zero-marginal-cost society, where we can earn money by wasting energy - because we use it instead of consuming it. For more information about our Top100 entrepreneur Timo Leukefeld, click HERE Further articles on the topic: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiewende http://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/energiewende.html