Today, electric cars are too expensive for most of us, even with prices creeping downward. A Tesla Model S will run you over a grand a month, and even Ford’s electric Focus sells for nearly $40,000. Making matters even tougher on the wallet is the fact that a home charging station will set you back Continue reading →
The hurricane season for the Atlantic basin runs from June 1 through November 30, but two storms formed as early as May in 2012. In fact, nineteen named storms formed in 2010, 2011 and 2012, making each year a tie for the third highest seasonal counts of all time. That number is well above the Continue reading →
Hope springs eternal — and nowhere is it gushing more strongly than with electric vehicle enthusiasts all over the world. In the United States, investors in Tesla Motors, Inc. (NasdaqGS:TSLA), the U.S. maker of electric sports cars, seem to be shrugging off the fact that the company is losing a $100 million a quarter, the Continue reading →
Americans are accustomed to being told that they are running behind other countries, that other places are doing a better job of educating their young or building high-speed railroads or ensuring access to healthcare. Energy efficiency would seem to be the last area in which the U.S., with its famously well-lit and climate-controlled lifestyle, would Continue reading →
The many benefits of distribution automation (DA) – visibility, fault detection and isolation, energy efficiency, and asset management – are creating a “second wave” of smart grid investments and integrations, following the widespread adoption of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Currently, in fact, the business case for DA is better than for any other single system Continue reading →
At this point in the interval meter saga, yet another diligent review of the facts lands with a thud. The Public Utilities Commission of Texas delivered “Health and RF: EMF from Advanced Meters: An Overview of Recent Investigations and Analyses” last month and it should be useful to those of us in the reality-based community. Continue reading →
Mark Twain famously said, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Today, we read similar reports concerning the demise of Colorado’s “new energy economy.” The fact is, due to comprehensive efforts toward regulatory, legislative and programmatic reform taken during the Ritter administration, Colorado’s new energy sector continues to thrive, serving a growing market here Continue reading →
Given the shortcomings of vehicle batteries–their high cost, the time it takes to recharge them, and the fact that they store less energy as they age (they’re expected to lose about 20 percent over 8 years)–many researchers are looking for alternative ways to power electric cars. via Toyohashi University of Technology Researchers Show How to Continue reading →
The tens of billions of dollars of smart grid technology being deployed across the world is going to create a huge amount of data — and that means that building the tools to collect, understand and act on that data is going to be a billion-dollar-plus business in its own right. In fact, the U.S. Continue reading →
Hurricane Sandy left the energy infrastructures of the Mid-Atlantic states in shambles. In New York and New Jersey, millions of people lost heat and power, despite the fact that utilities, such as New York’s Con Edison, took preventive measures to limit their grid’s vulnerability. Plainly put, the fundamental underpinnings of our energy infrastructure are outdated Continue reading →
How to deal with rising power bills – and how to help increasingly disenchanted energy consumers deal with them? It’s a thorny issue for Australian governments and, thus, a major theme of the Gillard government’s final energy white paper, which was released in Melbourne on Thursday. The long-awaited paper – titled “Australia’s Energy Transformation” and Continue reading →
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently stated at the inaugural World Cities Summit that for the Republic to continue on its growth trajectory, the country has to evolve into a smart city. In fact, this will be a challenge not only for Singapore, but also for other cities around the world. Today, cities contain Continue reading →
When people outside the energy industry think of smart grid, they often see little more than wires and poles. But utilities know that operating the grid is far more complicated than simply sending power through a line and into a home or business. There is a whole host of problems that can occur between the Continue reading →
MISO, the regional grid operator for much of the Midwest, says it has incorporated synchrophasors into two critical aspects of its grid analytics – system modeling and after-the-fact event analysis. With 161 synchrophasor measurement devices installed and now operating along the 50,000-mile interconnected system in the MISO 11-state region, MISO’s grid operators have a new, Continue reading →
There’s a lot of talk about smart meters and how they can help communities use power more efficiently, conserving energy and thus reducing costs. However, some claim that smart meters are hazardous to human health, emitting dangerous high frequency radio waves that can cause illness and disease. Unfortunately, all of this conflicting information can leave Continue reading →
Let’s face it: advanced electric meters, or “smart meters,” have a reputation problem. Consumer concerns about health and privacy have given these devices a bad rap. A video and fact sheet released today by the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) set out to separate the facts from the fiction about smart meters and provide consumers Continue reading →
Northern India’s electricity has been restored after 600 million people were left in the dark for two days last week. While an outage of this magnitude is unlikely to occur in the U.S., grid stability and capacity are still a global concern. This is a reality the U.S. should not take lightly. Case in point Continue reading →
Google Fiber launched last week amid excitement and some skepticism, and one local techie said its rollout highlights the Gig City’s progress in high-speed Internet and smart grid technology. “I’m not dogging the fact that [Google Fiber] is there,” Cory D. Wiles with EPB said. “It’s a good thing, but what I’m saying is it Continue reading →
When it comes to energy efficiency, the state of California is pretty clear on where its priorities lie — and when it comes to efficiency standards, it’s not afraid to flex some muscles to prove it. Consider the fact that the state has already set some of the highest standards in the nation for everything from television sets to cell phone Continue reading →
Washington, America’s power center, recently experienced life without power—the kind that gets generated, not the kind that gets wielded. After a nasty storm knocked out the Beltway’s electricity for days during a heat wave, power brokers of the political type complained: Didn’t President Obama promise a smarter, more reliable grid? Yes, he did. And the Continue reading →
