Broome Community College is officially in the wind business.
College leaders on Wednesday unveiled the college’s 40-feet-tall wind turbine — “or upside down egg beater, however you prefer to refer to it,” said BCC President Kevin Drumm.
Students from multiple departments will use the turbine as part of their studies — including engineering, art, business, statistics and physics, Drumm said.
via Wind turbine unveiled at BCC | The Ithaca Journal | theithacajournal.com.
Homes in rural locations or with poor broadband connections could now be fitted with smart meters, helping occupants and industry save money and energy.
Bglobal, a provider of smart energy solutions and NEUL, a white space specialist have successfully carried out a trial in which smart meter readings have been taken remotely over a distance of 1km using white space: spare frequency leftover from the digital TV switchover.
According to a report provided by IDC, “Energy Insights Worldwide Utility Smart Grid Spending Forecast, 2010-2015?, expenditure on smart grid technology will increase globally by 2015. In the midst of its prediction that smart grid spending will increase by 17.4 percent from 2010 to 2015 — whereas overall spending will reach $46.4 billion — London will now host a new operating system that could be the future of powering cities through smart grid technology.
via London tests out Smart City operating system | SmartPlanet.
The metering industry has called for the proposed European Union (EU) energy efficiency directive (EED) to set mandatory requirements for smart meters to provide minimum functionalities and energy consumption and cost information.
The EED, now the subject of haggling by the European Parliament and the European Council of EU governments, would otherwise fail to achieve its main aim of helping the EU to reduce its primary energy consumption by 20% by 2020, claimed the European Smart Metering Industry Group (Esmig).
via Energy efficiency directive ‘will fail’ without mandatory smart meter minimum spec.
Asia is quickly becoming a center of global smart grid activity. The cumulative smart grid market in China, Japan and South Korea is currently valued at US$8.5 billion, with that number forecasted to increase to $19 billion by 2016, according to GTM Research’s latest market report, The Smart Grid in Asia, 2012-2016: Markets, Technologies and Strategies.
The connected residential market is a fast evolving segment influenced by a number of emerging industry trends. Recent developments in the implementation of end-to-end smart grid at the utility level, as well as changes witnessed in the area of managed home devices and systems, are expected to further impact the dynamics of this market segment. The connected home suppliers catering to this rapidly progressing space are facing the challenges of keeping abreast with technology development. In accordance, companies must also meet new grid infrastructure requirements while developing solutions that are compatible with changing standards and communication topologies.
via Impact of the Smart Grid on the Connected Home – MarketWatch.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has released the 802.15.4g radio standard, a global wireless networking standard establishes common and consistent communication specifications for utilities deploying smart grid technologies. The standard enables interoperable communications between smart grid devices, including smart meters and smart home appliances.
via IEEE establishes consistent smart grid deployment specs – FierceSmartGrid.
We touched a nerve on Monday when I asked a basic question in a column titled “Is `Saving Money’ the Right Smart Grid Pitch?”
The occasion was a couple newspaper articles on Commonwealth Edison’s grid modernization work in Chicagoland.
I based my premise, essentially, on the lead sentence of one article from the Joliet Herald-News, which said: “If all goes as planned, ComEd customers should see their bills shrinking and their lights staying on more often over the next decade.”
via Shrinking bills: a smart grid misnomer? | Intelligent Utility.
Richard Ford doesn’t like the term smart grid.
“It means different things to different people,” says the manager of grid solutions at Toronto Hydro. “The term has become overused. It gets in the way.”
Many hydro customers in the city associate the term with the smart meters in their homes and the time-of-use pricing they enable. Some imagine a smart home or building equipped with intelligent appliances and lighting systems that interact with each other and can be remotely managed by software to reduce energy use.
via The smarter the grid, the less you notice it – thestar.com.
Elster has been contracted to supply 80,000 smart meters to households in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by local utility Light.
The order follows the successful deployment of 20,000 units in the neighbourhoods of Tabajaras, Cabritos and Borel, in the first half of 2011.
The advanced metering system was developed in Brazil and allows the utility to install up to 12 devices in one unit, which is then typically placed on top of an electric transformer pole to prevent interference.
via Energy efficiency news – Elster wins 80,000 smart meter deal in Rio.
BMW has taken another step in what is shaping up to be a multifaceted electric vehicle initiative that focuses on spurring infrastructure and lifestyle changes among consumers, as much as touting the vehicles themselves.
A new partnership between BMW and Real Goods Solar, a Louisville, Colo.-based provider of residential and commercial solar technology, will allow owners of current BMW ActiveE experimental electric vehicles and future buyers of the i3, BMW’s first full-production EV scheduled to launch in 2013, to buy solar panels for their homes at up to a 35% discount.
via BMW Pushes Solar Power With New Partnership – Forbes.
S&C Electric Company, a smart grid leader shaping the future of reliable electric delivery, today announces an agreement to bundle application control software from McAfee into S&C’s PC-based control platforms. This bundling will allow S&C to enhance the security and protection of its control platforms that use commercial, off-the-shelf operating systems.
“Cybersecurity is a concern in the deployment of smart grid technology,” says Rohit Khera, S&C Cyber Security Architect. “By integrating advanced security features like those provided by McAfee, S&C is helping to address one of the hurdles to deploying a modern smart grid.”
via S&C Enhances Security of Smart Grid Controls With McAfee Solutions – MarketWatch.
An interesting video from NOVA scienceNOW illustrates the immense challenges and opportunities faced in modernizing the US electricity grid. In the video, Eric Lightner, Director of the Federal Smart Grid Task Force at the Department of Energy (DOE), addresses how smart grid is the best way to make the largest most interconnected machine – the grid – more efficient, helping to save energy and the environment.
via NOVA explores the smart grid | Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative.
The term “smart grid” means many things to many people, but for solar and utility engineers, the effort around perfecting solar smart grid tools has focused on refining the grid-capable properties of inverters and storage components. Communications protocols are being drafted and harmonized, and component manufacturers and utilities are entering a new phase of testing these protocols with the grid’s next-generation hardware.
via Smart Grid Tools for Solar Installations – Solar Novus Today.
Customer backlash over new technology for measuring power usage is slowing utilities’ efforts to upgrade their networks.
As utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Central Maine Power Co. and Central Vermont Public Service Corp. push forward with installations of “smart meters” — wireless digital technology that monitors electricity usage and transmits data in real time — states are allowing dissatisfied consumers to opt out for an extra fee.
Boing Boing science editor Maggie Koerth-Baker has built a career out of demystifying complicated science and technology issues. With her recent book, Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before it Conquers Us, she set herself the gargantuan task of explaining the evolution and potential fates of American energy system—from our wood-stove days to the smart grid. It was commenters on Boing Boing, the popular little-bit-of-everything blog, who woke her up to the need for such a book. “The same bits of confusion would come up over and over again—people wouldn’t understand how electricity worked and so on. There were a lot of little things that made it clear that even Boing Boing’s well-educated, science-geekery population doesn’t know the context behind a lot of the news they’re reading.”
via Boing Boing Editor Makes Energy Policy an Illuminating Read | Mother Jones.
Siemens has developed an energy-storage system that can act as a buffer in electrical power grids. The aim is to provide a buffer against short-term fluctuations in output from renewable energy sources. Such fluctuations can last for seconds or several minutes long. The modular designed Siestorage battery is based on lithium-ion rechargeable battery technology and fits into a normal shipping container. In its big layout it stores 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s about the average daily power consumption of 50 households. The Italian power company Enel recently switched on the first Siestorage installation, which has a capacity of one megawatt. Enel is using the installation, which is connected to its primary distribution network, to study how voltage can be stabilized.
via Power storage buffers fluctuating solar power.
A new town modeled after Rock Hill will soon rise from the New Mexico desert.
Portions of the town will look like downtown Rock Hill, while other areas will resemble local neighborhoods, industrial sites, and even farm land. If you look closely, you may be able to pick out familiar east-west streets such as Dave Lyle Boulevard.
Construction of the town, capable of handling 35,000 residents, is estimated to cost $400 million.
About the only thing missing will be the Come-See-Me and ChristmasVille festivals – and the people.
While each of the 100 homes will have electricity and a flushable toilet, no one will live in City Labs.
via Rock Hill is the model for full-scale New Mexico testing lab | Local News | Rock Hill Herald Online.
The numbers, when it comes to the overall smart grid category, are big. This week, for instance, ABI Research released a report that said the sector will reach $65 billion annually by 2017.
That’s a lot of money, even to Mitt Romney. And 2017 only is five years off. The press release paints a very clear picture of why expectations are so high:
via Smart Grid: A Challenging $65 Billion Industry in Five Years | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com.
Convincing consumers to accept smart grid technology will not be an easy task, but it is vitally important if grid modernization is to achieve its full potential, according to participants who took part in a roundtable discussion hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Great River Energy.
One big obstacle is conveying the message to consumers that the success of the smart grid is tied to the performance of the grid overall, said Rolf Nordstrom, executive director of Great Plains Energy.
via Renew Grid: Consumer Ignorance Could Hinder Smart Grid Progress.
