Smart Grid Blog

f you attend enough cleantech events or are pitched by enough startups, you start to see the same few PowerPoint slides over and over again. Here is a collection of the best or at least the most notorious and historically significant slides in our industry.

After publishing this list to an overwhelming response, we heard from the original architects of some of these iconic greentech slides and we made sure to give them their overdue credit.  We also added a few additional slides that we left out during the first, second and third go-round.

via Update! 15 PowerPoint Slides That Shook the Earth | Sources Energy.

Renewable energy technologies, fueled by worldwide government support in the form of stimulus programs and other incentives, have improved the global economic outlook with new jobs and industry. Six will hit double digit growth in the next five years — and change our lifestyle, according to a series of market studies from SBI Energy. Here’s what the industrial market research company found:

via Smart Grid and Renewable Technologies May See Double Digit Growth in Five Years.

The countries of the Middle East might seem like the last places that would embrace non-hydrocarbon energy sources. With a total of 55 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves and 41 percent of its natural gas, why should they? But the past year has seen a major push towards nuclear and renewable sources of energy in the Middle East, as the region’s states work to solve the problems of burgeoning domestic growth through energy diversification.

via Is the Middle East becoming a clean-energy mecca? – By Eric Lukas | The Oil and the Glory.

The French government has launched a huge investment package towards renewable energy. A total investment of €1.35 billion is to be made during a 4-year period. The program has been termed as “demonstrateurs energies renouvelables et chimie verte,” in French, which translates into English as “renewable energy and green chemistry demonstration.”

via France Provides Incentives for Renewable Energy Programs.

‘Smart grid’ is a term with as much buzz as any I’ve heard lately.  It’s mentioned in conversations about climate change, renewable energy and new types of energy storage.  It seems that just saying “smart grid” several times in a conversation makes people think you’re smarter.  But with all the buzz and money being spent to make our existing grid smarter, the least talked about but most important part of the smart grid is what’s often left out – you.  The American consumer’s acceptance of this new, intelligent technology is of paramount importance.

via Consumer Engagement Seen as Key to the Smart Grid’s Success : Greentech Media.

Ever since Don Quixote tilted at wind mills, warfare and renewable energy have had a rough relationship.

It’s tough to erect wind turbines or solar panels when the enemy keeps blowing things up.

Still, Lt. Col. Brian Stevens of the Texas Army National Guard is determined to try.

Stevens leads a group of 66 soldiers who want to help bring sustainable agriculture and renewable energy to rural Afghanistan.

via NREL: News Feature – Renewable Energy at Work in War Zones.

Preliminary results of a test project in Minnesota for large-scale battery storage of wind energy – and possibly, in the future, solar electricity – show that it works, the multistate electricity company Xcel Energy says.

Several studies are under way in the United States, and more are ongoing in other countries, on using batteries to help integrate the intermittent and variable electricity production from solar and wind installations into the steady current flow of electricity grids.

via Battery Storage of Renewable Energy Looks Promising, Xcel Energy Says.

The EU has recently set the objective of installing smart meters in 80% of households across Europe by 2020.

A new report by Greenbang, covered by the Financial Times Energy Source blog, reveals that the market for ‘smart’ electricity in Europe is “set to expand rapidly in coming years” as more and more renewable energy comes online, government initiatives kick-in and overall demand for energy grows.

via REVE – Regulación Eólica con Vehículos Eléctricos -.

This fully integrated combination of EV charging station, smart grid connectivity software and solar, renewable energy generation array represents the next, logical evolutionary step in the developing movement to transition a portion of the transportation sector away from traditional fossil fuels and toward cleaner and renewable domestic energy sources, including solar, wind, and geothermal.

via EV-Charge America Unveils Southeast America’s First Level II ‘ J1772 Enabled EV Charging Station System with an Integrated 20kW Solar Carport Array | Earth Times News.

A decade ago, Gnutella, Kazaa and other early peer-to-peer (P2P) systems showed that a decentralized approach to managing large-scale, widely distributed systems could offer many essential advantages compared to the traditional centralized approach. Since then, researchers have taken the decentralized design method far beyond music sharing, applying it to areas as diverse as database distribution and analysis of biological systems.

via How a smart, decentralized Energy Web is essential for managing renewable energy sources.

Nevada utility regulators have approved a sweeping 20-year development plan for Nevada’s main electric utility that includes a $510 million transmission line, $301 million in “smart” meters and more than 400 megawatts of renewable-power purchases.

State Public Utilities Commission approval Wednesday for the NV Energy-integrated resource plan gave the go-ahead for building a 235-mile transmission line from Ely to the Las Vegas area.

via Nevada Regulators Approve Transmission Line Plan.

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 centralized power plant to end-user is being set on its ear.  To some, this is what the smart grid enables.

via EDSA Makes Microgrids, Energy Independence Real : Greentech Media.

AT&T has signed a new agreement to combine Petra Solar’s smart grid and renewable energy technology with the telecom’s wireless network in order to offer utilities improved power quality and grid reliability. Petra Solar’s solution enables utility companies to simultaneously address Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements and invest in a smart grid technology.

via AT&T Teams with Petra Solar.

Some 3,000 smart metering and utility professionals are gathering in Vienna from 22-24 September to compare and take notes on the progress of the many smart metering roll-out programmes that are taking place across Europe. It is estimated that more than 96 million smart meters will be installed in households by 2014.

Elisabeth Brusse, project director of Metering, Billing/CRM Europe, says as more and more utilities are finishing their pilot projects or even completing their roll-out programmes, the market is looking into the next phase, offering value added services to the customers and moving to a smart grid infrastructure.

via Renewable Energy Magazine: Latest news – your source for renewable energy news– solar, wind, biomass, biofuel, hydro, CO2, solar thermal, hydro power, climate change, carbon trading...

With all the talk about modern smart grids and the call for increased transmission to deliver new renewable energy to consumers, eager to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, little attention is given to how antiquated and inefficient long-distance transmission is.

via A different view on transmission lines – Sustainable Business Oregon.

Most of the electric utility infrastructure deployed in the industrialized world was built between 60 to 80 years ago, and was designed to provide customers with as much energy as they could consume, generated from a centralized fossil fuel plant. However, much of the infrastructure is antiquated, and with the continuing increase in demand for power, the grid cannot safely and reliably manage the loads of today and tomorrow without significant upgrades. Furthermore, climate change standards and renewable energy mandates are among the key drivers that are forcing utilities to upgrades their infrastructure to incorporate new generation sources that do not negatively impact the environment. In order to accommodate these renewable sources of energy, which usually produce power on an intermittent basis, utilities are needing to install more accurate measurement, monitoring, control and analysis equipment to ensure these energy sources can be properly and reliably integrated into the grid. These intelligent technological and communication enhancements are usually described as the smart grid.

via Smart Grid Applications.

The development of offshore wind and linked infrastructure is vital to the UK meeting its EU 2020 renewable energy targets, the country’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said in a 2009 Renewable Energy Strategy report handed to the European Commission late Monday.

Up to 33 GW of offshore renewable generation may be developed and most of this would be connected to the onshore electricity grid through offshore transmission cables costing around GBP15 billion ($22.8 billion), DECC said.

via Platts: RSS Feed Detailed News.

Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google Inc., spoke at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum Wall Street on Wednesday in support of a new government agency that would help clean technology companies bridge the “valley of death,” a gap in financing for the first full-scale demonstration.

via Google’s Renewable Energy Push – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ.

PV Powered, Inc., an Advanced Energy company, announces that its commercial inverters have been selected for use in the largest ground-mounted photovoltaic solar installation in the state of Georgia. The one-acre 200kW project, on a pecan farm near Arlington, Georgia, will generate over 310,000 kWh’s of clean, affordable, sustainable energy per year, avoiding 223 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, and helping Georgia meet its renewable energy goals. The plant was engineered, constructed and commissioned by ESA Renewables, LLC, a Florida-based alternative energy provider, who is delivering all the energy from the site to Georgia Power under a five-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

via Largest Ground-Mount Solar Installation in Georgia uses PV Powered Commercial Inverters | PVPowered Inc..

Outgoing Colorado governor Bill Ritter has spent his last four years in office promoting renewable energy as both a philosophy and as an economic strategy. Ritter, who had decided not to run for re-election, has signed nearly 60 pieces of clean-energy legislation since taking office in 2007. Some of the laws include offering incentives and loans to homeowners to adopt solar, increasing the percentage of power utilities must from renewables by 2020 from 20 percent to 30 percent and facilitating renewable energy financing by folding it into a home mortgage.

via Colorado Leans Heavily on Smart Energy.