Don’t be a DOUG.

The takeaway from Tuesday morning’s keynote at the Energy Storage Association Conference and Expo in Charlotte, N.C. was spelled D-O-U-G, translated to “Dumb Old Utility Guy.”

And this putdown came from Michael O’Sullivan, a longtime utility veteran himself and senior vice president of development for NextEra Energy. He was referring to coming changes in the power industry and how energy storage can be a viable option and value proposition.

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CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — The quickened pace of global momentum tackling climate change will drive a “virtuous cycle” that benefits renewables and energy storage technologies, a key Obama Administration expert on the environment said Wednesday.

Utilities and consumers embracing wind and solar are helping reduce power emissions in the U.S., Rick Duke said during the keynote address for the final day of the 26th annual Energy Storage Association Conference & Expo in Charlotte. Duke is deputy director for the White House climate change efforts.

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North Carolina has significant opportunity to promote energy storage manufacturing in the state. But, it will likely lag in actually putting storage and its services on the power grid.

A panel of experts at the Energy Storage Association’s Annual Conference and Expo at the Charlotte Convention Center discussed what the state is doing now — and could do in the future — to build on the presence of companies in the industry to expand the energy hub already being developed in the Carolinas to include storage.

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SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY) and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) are natural partners, especially because Elon Musk happens to be the biggest shareholder of both companies. But there’s also another natural tie between the companies: SolarCity’s effort to democratize energy production has a growing need for Tesla Motors’ ability to store energy.

And it was recently uncovered by GTM Research that SolarCity has grand plans for Tesla Motors batteries in 2016.

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The energy world is full of complicated technologies and regulations, usually expressed in a thicket of off-putting acronyms. It’s enough to make your brain hurt.

So today, let’s look at something simple.

It’s a new technology for storing energy, an important part of enabling more wind and solar power on the grid. It’s from a company called ARES. Here’s how it works:

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The Intertubes have been buzzing with news that a research team based at UC-Irvine has created a new type of energy storage device that can last for more than 100,000 charges. For all practical purposes, that counts as an infinite battery. Under real life conditions, such a battery would most likely outlive the device it powers, and it might even outlive the owner of the device as well.

The new battery is still in the early research stage, but if it pans out, it would have a significant impact on lifecycle and supply chain issues for the ballooning number of smart phones, electric vehicles, energy storage products, and countless other battery powered devices inhabiting the Earth.

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