SunSpec August 2022 Ecosystem Newsletter

Dear SunSpec Members and Supporters,

With the SunSpec Alliance now well into the second decade of its quest to establish renewable- and distributed energy as the first and best source of energy for the world, I can’t help but to reflect on the idea that spurred us to take our first steps: the Network Effect and, more specifically, Metcalfe’s Law.

Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system. Experts agree that it characterizes many of the network effects of communication technologies such as the Internet, social networking and now Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).

The size of the DER network is relatively small and far from delivering the societal impacts of the Internet, but that day is coming. How do we know? It’s in the numbers. Let’s take a look at what is occuring in the SunSpec ecosystem.

In the past 24 months, nearly 10,000 individuals from 3,276 organizations in 98 countries have downloaded SunSpec specifications. The result has been 140 new SunSpec Certified product lines (690 discrete products) being delivered to market. These products are installed in systems in the U.S., Australia, China, the EU and Latin America. The SunSpec AHJ Registry, a web service for geolocating future DER systems in the U.S. surpassed 300,000 queries in the past 30 days. All of this occured before the state-level adoption of U.S. grid codes that mandate SunSpec standards or the application of the standards to the EV market that will occur in 2023.

So let’s talk about the human side of this network. First, many of us will be getting together at RE+ during the week of September 19-22 in Anaheim, California. The SunSpec team will be there in force and we look forward to seeing you. Second, we are happy to announce that registration is now open for the SunSpec Alliance 2022 Annual Member Meeting and DER Technology Conference to be held December 7 & 8 in Las Vegas. If your company is planning to deliver an interoperable DER product or service to market in 2023, ]you need to be there. We’re planning an intense technical agenda and have reserved plenty of time to make meet, talk, have fun, and expand the global SunSpec network. Onward!