The original call
Original year: 2023
2026 assessment
Scorecard verdict: Hit
Hit. The “prosumer” is now the industry’s own word for the active participant who both produces and consumes energy. Home energy management systems do exactly what I described, managing rooftop solar, storage, and sale-back. And the second-life battery industry I pointed to is real, companies like Evyon in Norway have deployed nearly 1,000 second-life battery modules across projects in six countries, turning retired EV batteries into grid storage. The community microgrid in Feldheim, Germany even built its own independent grid and now sells 99% of its wind power back to the national one. “You’ve got a grid, I’ve got a grid” turned out to be a business plan.