IT

Oil Sands Producers Dig Deep with New Technology

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The iconic image associated with Canada’s oil sands development is that of a huge open pit mine, gargantuan dump trucks and enormous tailings ponds, but this production method is being outmoded as producers move to develop deeper bitumen deposits. Although it relies on a relatively young technology, in situ oil sands development is the wave of the future in Northern Alberta’s oil patch.

Commercial oil sands mining operations date back to the 1960’s and the technology that undergirds the process continues to evolve. Notably, some of the most interesting new technology is invisible, as companies are using horizontal drilling technology to recover oil from deposits located greater than 200 feet below ground. These deeper deposits account for 80 percent of total proven oil sands reserves and are expected to account for 80 percent of total oil sands production over the medium term, from about 50 percent mining and 50 percent in situ today. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 21, 2012 at 9:00 AM

How Your Electric Car Will Soon Be Like Your Mobile Phone

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One of the primary concerns about electric cars among vehicle buyers remains the question of where they can plug it in. IBM, which has made a specialty in recent years of using its experience with data platforms to enable shifts in energy usage and monitoring, is now working in a slate of European countries to “allow energy providers, car manufacturers and charging point owners to share integrate services on one common IT platform.”

IBM says the concept is similar to mobile phone roaming, with drivers able to charge and pay in any location across borders. The demonstration project, launching this week in Europe and called B2B Marketplace, builds on efforts to improve EV production and distribution in a number of European countries, including Ireland, Spain, Germany and Denmark among others. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 20, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Cleantech VCs Count Profit and Loss from Investments

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Poor performance for cleantech stocks this year may continue in 2013 despite some silver linings during 2012, a leading analyst and a panel of VCs recently warned.

Kevin Genieser, Managing Director and Global Head of Clean Technology Banking at Morgan Stanley, said that cleantech equities had underperformed this year despite a bright start to 2012 with three IPOs in the sector. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 12, 2012 at 8:30 AM

GE’s Grid IQ Solutions as a Service (SaaS)

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GE’s Grid IQ Solutions as a Service (SaaS) helps utilities deliver grid modernization technologies, while enabling consumers to use energy more efficiently

Grid modernization projects typically come with a sizable capital-investment requirement and a certain amount of risk when making a long-term technology decision. In addition, there are deployment risks with integrating the disparate software applications associated with delivering the desired level of grid automation. Many small- and mid-market utilities that deliver electric utility services or additional water and gas utility services can benefit from GE’s SaaS offering. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 3, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Was Smart Grid Funding Misspent?

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A recent report from the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy came with a provocative press release title: “Smart Grid Funding Misspent on Obsolete Technologies.” The press release got plenty of attention from the utility and smart grid news circles, but it’s tough to tell if any of those actually read the report, “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid,” written by Timothy Schoechle, a consultant in computer engineering and standardization and former faculty member of the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. The report primarily takes aim at smart meters, which got the lion share of stimulus funding. Schoechle raises many questions and concerns that many others in the industry have identified, including the value of smart meters (although he also does not acknowledge their value when connected to more end-to-end smart grid projects, as many others do); the question of data privacy; and the issue of whether the meters, in and of themselves, will save consumers money.

 /  Published December 3, 2012 at 11:40 AM

Post-Sandy: Thinking The Unthinkable In Energy Infrastructure

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Hurricane Sandy presents state and federal officials nationwide with a superb opportunity to think through how to better utilize all their resources in an even worse disaster, says Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton.

And a worse disaster is coming – either from human enemies or from Mother Nature, he warned the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), meeting recently held in Baltimore. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 15, 2012 at 2:45 PM

Chevron, NASA Team Up For High-Tech Exploration

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Chevron has teamed up with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to bring space-age techniques to down-to-Earth energy exploration and production involving increasingly harsh environments.

 /  Published November 5, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Accenture’s research highlights six key questions #energy companies need to ask on business process management. http://bit.ly/TS2KcH

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Accenture’s research highlights six key questions #energy companies need to ask on business process management http://http://bit.ly/TS2KcH Accenture

 /  Published October 24, 2012 at 2:40 PM

Data Centers: How a Modern Smart Grid Can Support the Core of our Digital Economy

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Data centers are a vital cog in our digital world. As data centers become increasingly important, we need to look at the infrastructure behind them: the electric power grid. The grid is aging infrastructure designed in the 20th century well before the advent of digital services like those provided by data centers – and it’s simply not suited to meet the power demands of data centers.

Data centers depend on a reliable supply of electricity in order to perform 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Today’s electric infrastructure isn’t capable of providing the level of power reliability that data centers require, so these centers spend huge amounts of money on back-up systems in order to protect the facilities from power outages. There is increasing pressure to reduce the costs associated with electric service, however. A recent Gartner report showed that the annual cost to power an 8,000-square-foot data center can hit $1.6 million, and the cost is rising. These costs don’t include expenses associated with building, operating and maintaining back-up systems either. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 23, 2012 at 2:30 PM

To (the Future) Mr. President: Our Energy Problem Won’t be Solved with Incomplete Equations

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Tuesday night, Obama championed his commitment to more oil and gas exploration, as well as reinforced the doubling of U.S. clean energy production under his leadership. And Romney, advocating our energy independence, solidified his strong commitment to drilling and promoting a surplus of oil and gas.

What I’d like to know, however, is their plans on the other side of the energy equation: the demand side. No matter how much new generation we bring to the table, energy independence just isn’t possible without curbing our exponentially rising need for electricity. And so far, neither candidate has pontificated on how to make this possible. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM
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