IT

Nine Things We Already Know About The Smart Grid’s Future

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In 2010 and 2011, Smart Grid News participated in five separate “future of the smart grid” workshops organized by three different groups. We also conducted more than four dozen interviews with utility CEOs and CIOs. Those executives and experts made these nine predictions about the forces that will be driving the smart grid’s future:

1. Diverging demographics. We will have an increasingly diverse population with strong geographic, gender, generational, income and aspirational differences, with each segment expecting to “have it my way.” Keep reading →

 /  Published February 24, 2012 at 11:50 AM

What Does Your Energy Look Like?

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Millions of people in the US regularly respond to surveys asking where their energy comes from by responding “the socket” or “the plug.” The invisibility and omnipresence of electricity is, ironically, one of the challenges for the industry in trying to communicate its fundamental importance.

Making energy creation and consumption visible and relevant to people who are not engineers or experts, but are nonetheless reliant on energy for every aspect of their daily lives, is a challenge a number of firms in the sector have begun to embrace. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 24, 2012 at 11:20 AM

US Government Ascends Into Cloud Computing With Broad Impacts Cited

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Imagine a government as efficient as the highest-performing private sector companies, delivering critical services to millions across the nation. CIOs and citizens alike want and expect this type of government. Cloud computing is at the heart of government’s potential to achieve significant operational efficiencies, and the speed at which cloud platforms are deployed is a big reason why. Without IT infrastructure, cloud computing makes it possible to deploy new systems, applications, platforms and more at previously unheard of rates. Instead of months and years, it can take as little as a few weeks to launch effective cloud applications.

 /  Published February 21, 2012 at 11:00 AM

The Next Big Thing? EPRI’s Fast, Flexible – And Cheaper – EV Charging System

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The Genovation Cars G2 concept plug-in electric hybrid vehicle model during aerodynamics testing at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, January 26, 2012.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) describes its new technology as a 2.4 kilovolt, 45kVA (45,000 volt amps for the less technical among us) solid-state, direct current (DC) fast charging system for electric vehicles (EVs). Keep reading →

 /  Published February 17, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Two big questions for the electricity sector

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 /  Published February 14, 2012 at 10:15 AM

Smart Grid Show And Tell: Seven Projects That Say ‘Look At Me’

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We’re at juncture down the smart grid path where utilities are moving beyond the expected and taking next steps with advanced technologies – from the flywheel systems protecting Austin Energy’s new control center to SAIC’s Smart Grid as a Service supporting critical energy management systems in remote Alaskan villages.

Austin Energy using VYCON flywheel systems to protect its new control center Keep reading →

 /  Published February 10, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Supercomputer Leaps Tall Cleantech Challenges

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Scientists working to tackle our energy challenges at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, just got a powerful new weapon. While there’s no cape, the Olympus supercomputer does sport some superhero-like powers. It can’t fly, but it could perhaps help scientists figure out how with its ability to process computations as fast as 20,000 personal computers combined.

The supercomputer’s enormous disk bandwith – 80 gigabytes per second – allows it to read and write information to a disk 800 times faster than a personal computer, and it can hold 38.7 terabytes of memory. If you’re like us and were a little fuzzy on the prefix “tera,” it means 10 to the 12th power. So 38.7 terabytes is almost 39 trillion bytes. You get the picture; this is a very powerful computer combining with some very bright minds. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 31, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Who will be America’s Next Top Energy Innovator? You choose: http://go.usa.gov/nBb

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Who will be America’s Next Top Energy Innovator? You choose: http://go.usa.gov/nBb ENERGY

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM

IBM Partners Up To Build First Statewide Smart Grid

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Vermont’s electricity grid is learning to talk back, thanks to a partnership between technology giant IBM and the state’s VELCO transmission company that the firms say is a model for smart grid efforts across the US.

A new communications and control network will be stung along more than 1000 miles connecting transmission substations to Vermont’s distribution utilities as part of efforts to improve power grid reliability and security, the companies said in announcing their partnership at the DistribuTECH conference this week. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 6:00 AM

New Model Of Energy Venture Capital Emerges

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A new model of venture capital investing is emerging in the clean tech sector, moving away from subsidies and traditional investor exit strategies to a focus on intellectual property value and partnerships.

“It is the case that the venture model of entering and exiting in two to three years doesn’t work in [clean tech] and it never has,” Flagship Ventures CEO and Managing Partner Noubar Afeyan told Breaking Energy recently. “Investors were looking for a formulaic path to making money, but it is IP value and partnerships that both validates the underlying business and provides a liquidity proxy for a possible exit.” Keep reading →

 /  Published January 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM
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