PG&E Identifies More than 20 Climate-Tech Solutions Aimed at Achieving a Clean Energy Future

By Paul Doherty

PG&E has announced it is exploring more than 20 additional solutions resulting from its 2023 Accelerating Innovation effort that included its first-ever R&D Strategy Report, Innovation Summit and Pitch Fest.

PG&E’s R&D Strategy Report details 67 challenges that PG&E has identified in building a clean energy future for Northern and Central California. Following the report’s publication, PG&E hosted its first Innovation Summit in July 2023, where more than 3,000 people from across sectors convened to engage and collaborate with PG&E leaders and subject-matter experts about the current state and future needs of the energy system.

Following the Innovation Summit, PG&E solicited and received 628 applications from innovators with proposed solutions to the 67 challenges. PG&E evaluated all of the applications and selected 60 proposals, asking those innovators to pitch their solutions in person at its Innovation Pitch Fest in September 2023.

“We are on a mission to deliver safe, affordable, and reliable energy for all of our customers through and beyond the energy transition, and we recognize doing so requires developing and deploying energy innovations at greater speed,” said Mike Delaney, vice president, Utility Partnerships and Innovation, PG&E. “PG&E is where innovation goes to scale. Our partnerships with energy innovators have a direct impact in bridging the gap between today’s energy system and California’s clean energy future.”

Advancing Climate-Tech Solutions

As a result of Pitch Fest, PG&E has identified more than 20 additional solutions to further investigate or demonstrate in 2024, including through PG&E’s recently launched Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) 4 portfolio of emerging technology projects. The solutions PG&E is exploring aim to address needs across the energy system and are from the following companies:

Electric Vehicles

• Eaton
• Gridtractor
• itselectric
• New Sun Road
• Valmont Industries
• WeaveGrid

Gas

• C-FER Technologies
• Onboard Dynamics
• TrelliSense

Integrated Grid Planning

• Camlin Energy
• Future Grid
• General Electric
• Infravision
• Palantir Technologies

Supply and Load Management

• Piclo

Undergrounding

• Biosirus
• CivilGrid
• General Electric
• Parsons Corporation
• SAM Companies
• The Okonite Company

Wildfire

• Future Grid
• Treeswift
• Ubicquia

This list above includes Pitch Fest solutions of interest either in a pre-commercial/early commercialization phase or, for commercialized solutions, where significant PG&E R&D is required to leverage. Fully commercialized solutions of interest from Pitch Fest that are being evaluated through traditional utility processes are not listed. In addition, PG&E continues to re-evaluate the other 568 applicants not invited to Pitch Fest and is selectively adding more innovative solutions to continue investigating in addition to those identified from Pitch Fest.

PG&E’s strategy and needs as well as available technology and solutions continue to evolve over time, and there will be additional avenues for collaborating with PG&E through its continuing Accelerating Innovation effort in 2024.

To learn more about PG&E’s R&D Strategy, read PG&E’s R&D Strategy Report, view the recordings of all Innovation Summit 2023 sessions, or to contact PG&E and get involved, visit www.pge.com/innovation. To dive deeper into PG&E’s upcoming portfolio of EPIC projects, view the EPIC 4 Public Workshop presentation available at www.pge.com/EPIC.