The global microgrid market is growing up, according to cleantech research firm Pike Research. According to its new tracker report, pilot projects are fading and deployment of full-scale commercial microgrids is accelerating quickly – so much so that three subsegments in the remote microgrid market (village power systems, weak grid island systems and industrial mine Continue reading →
microgrid
When it comes to a sense of urgency, there’s nothing like the armed services of the United States. As previously documented in this space, the U.S. Department of Defense “gets it” when it comes to energy efficiency and self-sufficiency: they add up to energy independence and that means security. (See “Military Microgrids: a Journey.”) via Continue reading →
Borrego Springs, a progressive desert community located in San Diego County, is well known as a year-round center for astronomy research. In fact, the small town situated on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park was designated as California’s first International Dark-Sky Community to keep the star gazing sky as clear as possible. When Continue reading →
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has long been seen as a clean technology pioneer. After all, this is a utility that shuttered a nuclear reactor after a public vote in 1989 and has since blazed trails on wind, solar and energy efficiency. The company’s corporate headquarters will soon show off a new technology – a Continue reading →
The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories has awarded New Jersey-based Petra Solar a $3 million contract to commercialize its technology for the nation’s energy grid. Part of the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Program, the contract will help Petra continue to develop electric grid stabilization, micro-grid and smart grid technologies with the goal of Continue reading →
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has selected participants for the Japan-U.S. Smart Grid Collaborative Demonstration Project, which will soon be initiated in New Mexico. The central purpose of this collaborative project – comprising NEDO, the State of New Mexico government, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) – Continue reading →
Last summer, the call “Every end node is a microgrid” focused smart energy standards activities. Like the regional grids, a microgrid is responsible for running its own operations, and for supporting its own needs. Like the regional grids, a microgrid uses market operations to acquire what it cannot make itself, and what it can buy Continue reading →
Brightly colored and clear as day, a recently released road map for South Korea’s smart grid sends an unmistakable message: We’re ready — are you? The country’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s two-page report hits all the high points (and garners plenty of style points) in its plan for smart grid deployment through 2030, with hard Continue reading →
It wasn’t that long ago that microgrids were commonly thought of in the utility industry as negatives: They were supposedly unsafe. And worse, they were competition. But it looks like more utilities and other industry players see them as critical building blocks that will help ensure the efficiency and reliability of the Smart Grid. via Continue reading →
Grids, and microgrids, have two approaches to storing energy. They can store it in something that produces electricity, or they can store it in any format that provides a service to its customers. The closer we get to the end users of energy, the more options we have to store energy. The most critical short Continue reading →
A Smart-Grid is defined as an interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers. It can be referred to at a city level, county, state, or national level, or even throughout a continent. The grid supports electricity generation, electric power transmission and distribution. Other terms for Smart-Grid are smart electric grid, smart power grid, Continue reading →
In April 2007, a helicopter landed in a backyard in Johnson Valley, California, a desert hamlet of 440 residents on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park. “One of the neighbors went out and asked them what they were doing just a few hundred feet from his house,” Jim Harvey, a local landowner, recalls. “They Continue reading →
