The beauty of publishing in a digital environment is that a writer essentially goes fishing. You never know what you’re going to catch, but if you use a barbed hook, reeling in some flak is likely. Time to review a week’s worth of bold statements and the bracing zingers that came from those who took Continue reading →
microgrids
With enabling technology and supporting standards maturing, the potential applications of microgrids are growing more powerful and their interconnection with the electricity grid simpler. These trends make microgrid deployment an increasingly compelling opportunity for utilities amid Smart Grid transformation. Microgrids are distributed resources in which energy is generated, connected to substations or feeder networks and Continue reading →
Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Remote Microgrids Remote power systems in all corners of the world number in the thousands, with the vast majority being powered up by dumb, dirty diesel generation, hardly a technology of relevance to the smart grid and fundamental networking advantages of the Continue reading →
Just before Christmas, I wrote a piece on three smart-grid trends I’ll be watching in 2012 and touched on microgrids as one of them. Lo and behold, cleantech research firm Pike Research is out with a new report this week suggesting that microgrids are poised for a breakthrough year. via Market dynamics driving more companies, Continue reading →
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 →
IBM, once known for main frame computers, now wants to be known for building smarter cities. That will start with a smarter power grid. Software that lets a utility in Washington cut power consumption by up to 50% will soon get a big test. This demonstration is part of a project that will attempt to Continue reading →
Before the nation’s power grid is able to get smarter across the board, it needs to get smarter in pieces. Microgrids — which use smart grid tech to control distributed power generation and energy storage on localized grids, separate from the utility power grid — will gross $1.7 billion by 2016, according to a new Continue reading →
Microgrids may be a hot topic among those forecasting key future trends shaping the world’s energy infrastructure, but few significant state-of-the-art commercial microgrids are actually up and running in North America, the world’s leading market for microgrids. One leading domestic developer claims that not a single microgrid is providing energy services today in the U.S., Continue reading →
When a company like Cypress Semiconductor and T.J. Rodgers, its iconoclastic CEO, declares “energy independence” — it’s a sure sign of a coming shift. The traditional relationship between power company and power customer is changing, albeit slowly, with the advent of distributed generation, in both renewable and non-renewable forms. The “downhill” flow of energy from Continue reading →
Global Information Inc would like to present a new market research report, “Microgrid Markets and Opportunities” by NanoMarkets. Microgrids represent an emerging sector in the Smart Grid market. NanoMarkets believes that the microgrids sectors will “exhibit significant growth over the next decades; there are already many applications where a compelling case can be made for Continue reading →
After years of secrecy, Bloom Energy today finally unveiled the Bloom Energy Server, better known as the Bloom Box. It uses novel fuel cell technology to produce electricity from a combination of oxygen, heat and a fuel source like natural gas or biogas, and it is small enough to sit relatively inconspicuously on company property. Continue reading →
Microgrids are natural innovation zones for the Smart Grid because they have experimentation scalability and flexibility. Smart utilities could create partnerships with academic and business campuses in their territories to deploy microgrids and study the most effective solutions for management of distributed generation. Why distributed generation? Because smart utilities should leverage the abilities of microgrids Continue reading →
The term “microgrid” may conjure up images of self-sufficient military bases and remote outposts, generating and consuming power without any connections to the larger electricity grid. After all, backup generators that support multiple buildings — the bare-bones definition of a microgrid — are already a mainstay of hospitals, refineries, data centers, semiconductor plants and other Continue reading →
Viridity Energy, a smart grid company that transforms large energy consumers into virtual energy generators, and Drexel University’s College of Engineering announced their joint participation in a panel discussion today highlighting their work together. “Sustainability: Beyond a Buzzword to a Better Bottom Line” is a special breakfast seminar to discuss the economic benefits of sustainability Continue reading →
Back in September 2009 I blogged about six rules that tell you when you have a Smart Grid. The third rule is: You know you have a Smart Grid when the transmission and distribution portions of the grid are optimized for distributed energy generation/storage. This rule becomes reality when microgrids are ubiquitous. The Smart Grid Continue reading →
There is no reason at all to limit our concepts of grid energy storage and buffers to electricity and batteries—and many opportunities open up if we do not. Smart Grids and Distributed Energy Create opportunities for Diversity in Energy Storage Grids, and microgrids, have two approaches to storing energy. They can store it in something Continue reading →
