About Microgrids

Television Time: CBS Saturday Morning Highlights Hotel Marcel, Microgrid

Aug. 19, 2024

Microgrid Knowledge Conference contributor Ageto Energy designed and developed the project. The 7-minute segment focused on the project’s connection to on-site solar and other clean energy technologies.

Rod Walton, Managing Editor

Hotel Marcel PV. Photo credit Bruce Becker

Closeup time: Microgrids gained the spotlight treatment with another high-profile mainstream media story this past weekend.

CBS Saturday morning focused one of its segments on the Hotel Marcel microgrid project in Connecticut. Microgrid Knowledge Conference contributor Ageto Energy designed and developed the project.

The 7-minute segment focused on the project’s connection to on-site solar and other clean energy technologies. CBS Saturday morning co-anchor Michelle Miller visited the Hotel Marcel and spent time with hotel developer Bruce Becker and manager Ben Webster, highlighting the site’s unique history and architecture.

“Thank you, CBS Saturday morning, for sharing the story of how Hotel Marcel has charted a path to decarbonize the commercial building sector,” Backer wrote in a LinkedIn post celebrating the media coverage. “There’s much more to the story, including Passive House certification, POE and lots of other important details - but what a great way to introduce the general public to this replicable renewable energy zero emission strategy!

Hotel Marcel is on the National Register of Historic Places and a Hilton-branded hotel. It’s grid-tied microgrid also is connected to provide grid services as well as on-site power for the facility.

Longtime Microgrid Knowledge Conference participant Ageto provided the microgrid controls for the project. The CBS segment also details how the hotel microgrid cuts greenhouse gas emissions.

Backup power generator firm Generac recently announced it was acquiring Ageto to bolster its commercial and industrial microgrid market reach. The two companies have been collaborating on projects since 2021.

Microgrids have been gaining widespread media attention in the past year. Fox News Channel featured the technology’s growth phase, while TIME magazine named microgrid developer Schneider Electric as the world’s most sustainable company.

Click here to see the YouTube version of the CBS Saturday Morning microgrid segment.

About the Author

Rod Walton, Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.