Technology Commercialization Strategy

Project: Across the US, there was a growing need for integrated and collaborative energy system planning that would anticipate and tackle the stresses associated with intensified climate change conditions in order to create a more resilient communications and power infrastructure. Researchers at Cornell were looking to demonstrate efficacy of demand response to facilitate the integration of intermittent sources of energy at meaningful levels that would aid in reducing the need for substantial new electric storage capacity, improve reserve generation response with flexible dispatch, create a more robust distribution network, and support the evolution of sustainable communities. In collaboration with Verizon, they were examining the integration of intermittent renewables with algorithm‐controlled ground source heat pumps (GSHP) at scale, which could begin to reduce climate change intensity and the dependence on fossil fuels. The SGE Immersion team conducted an assessment of the commercialization potential of algorithm‐controlled GSHPs in order to determine what product features potential customers would value, how the product might be adopted and diffused in the marketplace, and which segments may be the most valuable to target for future commercialization.