Turning utility lines into futuristic smart grids promises such perks as letting consumers turn on the air conditioner remotely before returning home or programming the washing machine to churn clothes when power is cheaper. via Google fiber may help smart-grid efforts overcome price impediments – Kansas City Business Journal.
Google’s decision to shelve its home energy management app, PowerMeter, should not be taken as a sign the browsing giant is extricating itself from the power industry. Earlier this year, Google deployed its ultra-fast, one-gigabit-per-second broadband internet access to several cities, including Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. It also began collaborating with the Continue reading →
Google, the world’s leading proponent, provider and consumer of cloud computing, has more than 1 billion search users. The company also supports roughly 200 million Gmail users and tens of millions of users (many of them the same) via Google Apps, where software and services are hosted on powerful computers. Google also run applications on Continue reading →
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) may have decided to put its PowerMeter home energy app on mothballs, but that does not mean it’s not interested in getting a piece of the utility business. One way Google will achieve its utility desires will be to extend Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) deployments in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas Continue reading →
Methinks you have all read about the recent decisions of Google and Microsoft to back off investments in cloud-based services designed to help consumers managed their home electricity consumption. Google blinked first, then Microsoft. Both cited poor consumer adoption in their decisions. I just think they are impatient. via In home energy management, progress despite Continue reading →
Sometimes innovative companies can be a little too ahead of their time. Google and Microsoft are arguably two of the most influential and innovative companies in modern history. Part of their success has been to capitalize on emerging trends by anticipating consumer needs and wants. So it was not terribly surprising when both companies introduced Continue reading →
Google, Inc. has deployed more than 70 Coulomb Technologies charging stations at its worldwide headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Over 100 employees who own electric cars use the charging stations. The stations (EVSE) are also used by the company’s growing car sharing program for Googlers (GFleet), which includes Chevrolet Volts, Nissan LEAFs and Toyota Prius Continue reading →
Last week we learned that both Microsoft and Google were dropping their home energy management efforts (Microsoft Hohm and Google Powermeter). So now the postmortem. If we were making an electric power version of the film Dumb and Dumber, which company would play Dumb? And which one would be Dumber? via Smart Grid: Who is Continue reading →
Internet giants Google and Microsoft have officially given their web-based energy management tools the Donald Trump (as in, “You’re Fired!”), and last week, announced they would be closing them down in the near future. I’ve already dug into a few reasons why I think Google’s PowerMeter tool and Microsoft’s Hohm app didn’t make the cut. But there are Continue reading →
In a recent news release, Google announced that it is abandoning the smart grid market and discontinuing their flagship product PowerMeter. Apparently, the company has “… been unable to turn it into mass-market propositions”. For those of us that are industry veterans, this may not be too much of a surprise. It is not easy Continue reading →
First Google kills its PowerMeter energy monitor this week. Now Microsoft has announced it will curtail its Hohm energy monitoring/energy saving recommendations site, apparently because not many people were using it. Hohm will be available to users until May 31, 2012. And boy, the “tributes” are rolling in—and I use that term facetiously. Abject ridicule, some of Continue reading →
Who doesn’t pat themselves on the back when Google puts money into their industry? Ah, the giant likes this market. I must be on the right track! So what does it mean now that Google has announced it will retire its Google PowerMeter because it didn’t catch on? Are all those companies who are investing Continue reading →
Google, a leader of innovation in the digital economy, says that without a private and public focus on innovation in renewables, storage, and electric vehicles, the cost of delaying the clean energy economy could be in the trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy. via Google says delaying clean energy will cost the U.S. trillions Continue reading →
The results of some fairly high profile smart energy management projects (apparently successful) are due this week, but apparently Google didn’t have the patience to wait. The giant Internet services company has officially “retired” the PowerMeter service due to lack of consumer adoption. via What Google’s exit means for energy management in the cloud | Continue reading →
Google officially shuttered its web energy tool PowerMeter Friday after the application failed to bring in enough users. For those who have watched PowerMeter’s slow slog over its two-year lifespan, the move to kill it isn’t all that shocking. But the application, which enabled people to monitor and manage their home energy consumption, does have an Continue reading →
In the wake of Google’s decision to retire its PowerMeter application, industry insiders showed little surprise. But the episode illustrates how the bar has been raised in the nascent home energy management area. Google on Friday said that it decided to retire PowerMeter, a Web application that displays how much electricity a home is using. Continue reading →
The ZigBee home area network standard already has lots of challengers (Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and HomePlug to name just three). Now it faces an assault from the biggest, baddest billion-dollar bully of them all – Google. via Smart Grid: Will Google destroy ZigBee?.
Proponents of offshore wind turbine farms got a big boost of encouragement this week as search engine giant Google got on the?proverbial bandwagon, allotting potentially billions of dollars toward the green movement.?On Tuesday, Google sent shockwaves through the environmental community as it announced it would spearhead a group of investors that would set aside more Continue reading →
Del Mar residents can now keep tabs on how much energy they’re using via Google PowerMeter, an online tool that tracks a household’s power-consumption. The free service is available to any San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) customers in Del Mar who have a smart meter, a digital device that collects energy-use data, and unlike Continue reading →
Google’s PowerMeter is making huge strides in leapfrogging the lumbering smart meter installation process, with utilities slowly integrating them into the nation-wide smart grid upgrade. For a quick refresher: the smart grid is an electric grid that is wholly connected, from energy source to end user, so that everyone who participates in the grid can Continue reading →
