Dozens of startup companies from all around the world met in Washington, D.C. last week to compete for funding as part of the startup incubator 1776’s second annual Challenge Festival. Sixteen energy-specific companies took part in the competition, pitching efficiency applications, analytics solutions and distributed energy technologies. There were also a handful of companies working on drones, electric-vehicle charging and weather-related applications that could serve the energy industry. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of U.S. investor-owned utilities, was a...