Francisco Flores

Research Engineer

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Francisco Flores is a techno-economic analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Francisco has more than nine years of experience in energy, economic, and financial analysis. At NREL, he is currently working on assessing microgrid costs and developing cost mitigation strategies. He has also evaluated the potential generation and financial performance of solar PV and wind generation facilities for domestic and international clients, modeled the potential economic benefits of renewable energy deployment in several regions of the world, and worked on financial optimization models for hybrid energy systems and networked microgrids. In the past, Francisco worked at the Colorado Energy Office where he co-developed and managed a program to assist distributed generation project developers and owners in developing business plans and finding sources of capital. Francisco has an electrical engineering degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, and master's degree from the University of Colorado.

In this talk we will present the results and ongoing progress of the Microgrid Cost Study, which is a project funded by the Office of Electricity of the U.S. Department of Energy to collect cost information on existing microgrids in the U.S. and investigate the variables that have the highest impact on costs, as well as potential areas for cost reduction. It will also provide an overview of the current regulatory environment and how it will affect microgrids in the future.

Presentation: US Microgrid Market and Regulatory Environment