Solar plane partner sees energy reforms in U.S.

As he follows the Solar Impulse 2 on its historic flight around the world, the CEO of one of the project's partners, Ulrich Spiesshofer, draws similarities between the challenges facing the aircraft and those confronting companies navigating changes in energy consumption, like his.

“We need to make sure that we demonstrate to the world with projects like this that we continue to stretch the limits,” Spiesshofer, the chief executive of ABB, a multinational maker of electricity grids and robots, said during a visit to Washington the other day. “This project is absolutely stretching the limits.”

As Spiesshofer spoke, the sun-powered plane was en route to Spain from New York in a bid to circle the globe that began last year. It completed its trans-Atlantic leg on Thursday, following a 4,000-mile flight that took seven hours to complete.

ABB is a technology partner in the undertaking, which would end where it began, in Abu Dhabi, at an as-yet unscheduled time.

“In simple terms, with Solar Impulse, we demonstrate that we can run the world without consuming the Earth,” Spiesshofer said in an interview.

With growing interest in weaning the world from fossil fuels and replacing them with solar power, batteries and other alternatives, companies like ABB are at the forefront of providing technologies that enable the transition to take place.

But like the weather that has sometimes delayed Solar Impulse 2 over the past year, the business and market conditions for energy innovations vary from one country to another.

For the most part, Spiesshofer paints a bright picture of the U.S., ABB’s biggest market, where the company has invested $10 billion over the last six years.

“You are one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, and the utilities here are highly entrepreneurial,” he said. “You have some of the best-in-class examples in the U.S. of companies embracing change, embracing technology and working strongly to lead in a new economic system that’s coming together.”

Spiesshofer was in Washington to attend the SelectUSA Summit, an event sponsored by the Obama administration to promote foreign investment in the U.S.

Spiesshofer said he received an invitation to the summit after meeting President Obama at the Hanover Fair in Germany in April, and showing the U.S. leader an ABB smart sensor that cuts energy consumption in electric motors.

“I think the opportunities are there,” he said of large-scale investments in new energy infrastructure in the U.S. “The need is there. The technology is there. At the moment, it’s less the technology and the need, and more the ecosystem around it, that makes it not that easy.”

To some extent, that ecosystem involves federal and state regulations that date back to an era when utilities simply sold electricity as a commodity, not as a service, as is the growing trend today. Moreover, concerns over the environment were not as urgent years ago.

Politics creates uncertainty, too, including in the U.S., where a hotly contested race for the White House is underway.

“You have elections coming, and let’s hope that the U.S. continues with the right kind of path forward for the industry and for us as a participant here,” Spiesshofer said, without commenting specifically on the Clinton or Trump campaigns.

The same can be said of “the global political environment” and the potential for setbacks around the world, he added, just two days before the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

“But when we go into a market, we don’t go in for the short term. We are in this country for many, many years.”

The challenges for Spiesshofer come from within ABB, too, as he moves the Zurich-based company from a product and manufacturing emphasis to one where new digital applications and customer demands lead the way.

“We’re going through a massive transformation in ABB as we speak,” he said. “I’m taking the company from an inside-out orientation to an outside-in one. That’s one of the hardest things to do, to make sure the customers speak before we speak, and that we listen to them.”

Like the Solar Impulse 2, there’s no going back.

“The world is going through a massive transformation” when it comes to energy production and use, he said. “I think we have passed the point of no return. It’s coming, and it’s coming at full speed.”

Bill Loveless — @bill_loveless on Twitter — is a veteran energy journalist and podcast host in Washington. He is the former anchor of the TV program Platts Energy Week.