Events unfolding in two US Northeast states – New York and Massachusetts – signal increased business opportunity for energy efficiency companies, green architects, lighting contractors, smart grid innovators and others in the business of saving energy.
First, the energy efficiency world should keep an eye
Advanced meters are the most visible component of recent smart grid deployments, dominating much public and media attention. However, industry members recognize even greater opportunities and imperatives for modernizing distribution infrastructure and operations further up the line. Distribution automation (DA) is a hot topic in the utility industry, encompassing
It’s easy for those of us who ‘talk’ energy every day to forget that we operate in a bubble. Outside the bubble the average household is at best vaguely aware of the enormous technology revolution about to change the way each of us uses electricity.
Two recent studies provide some insight into how little
With the relationship between utilities and their customers changing in unprecedented ways, new companies are deploying vast amounts of data and social psychology techniques to try to persuade people to use less electricity in their homes.
Visit the website of Opower and your eye will be
Here’s an article that points to a controversy about smart grid, i.e., about the concept of two-way communication between the electric generation plant and the customer, and the application of intelligence to flow of information. Apparently, someone is alleging that the money spent in the arena has been misspent, that smart grid won’t improve grid reliability, etc.
Amid the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy, we’re glad to share some good news from New York . . .
The Empire State is at it again, making moves towards ensuring that solar energy is a significant part of its energy landscape. Having increased the state’s commitment to solar development with the NY-Sun Initiative in early 2012, Governor Cuomo
Will new technologies democratize energy much the way the Internet did information?
Industry movement seems to point in that direction with the rise of the smart grid, time-of-day pricing, distributed solar, and the electric vehicle. Together these technologies offer a vision of a less centralized energy system, one where communities and households ‘vote in’ or shape the
A number of green patent complaints have been filed in the last several weeks in the areas of biofuels, LEDs, gasoline recycling, and smart grid.
Biofuels
Butamax Advanced Biofuels v. Gevo, Inc.; Gevo, Inc. v. Butamax Advanced Biofuels
We don’t think about energy until something goes wrong, and this week things went wrong on an historic level. As a result, the public and pundits are again focusing on the fragility of big electric grids.
Ten percent of the world’s population – more than 600 million people – lost their power in India on July
Imagine this scenario: you get an SMS saying there’s a problem in your home of excessive power output (“power leak”) and that an electric company rep is on his way to fix the problem. Sounds incredible? Well, apparently this scenario is not far from being realized. This is what Itai Brezis, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Cellcom, claimed at
An expert panel of IEEE members, representing the world’s largest technical professional association dedicated to advancing technology, yesterday said that collaboration is key to develop the global solar energy marketplace. They were speaking at the Intersolar Europe 2012 trade fair, which goes on until tomorrow in Munich, Germany. The IEEE expert panel provided leading
Ask most people to describe vanguard energy technology, and they’ll name LED lights, certain forms of solar energy and new electric storage methods. But how about this – generating energy from a living body?
The Journal of the American Chemical Society is reporting a “real-life scientific tail of the first electrified
Who among us has not eagerly described the smart meter to a non-energy person only to be greeted by a blank stare, or worse the retort: “Why would I want to track my electricity costs all day?”
You try to explain the profound applications: smart appliances that talk to the power grid, consumer
Exhilaration swept through the energy efficiency industry as city after city, state after state and nation after nation set aggressive energy saving goals over the last several years. But with target dates nearing in certain jurisdictions, a more sober attitude now permeates. Some governments are asking: Are we reaching too high?