Troops in a tactical environment have unique challenges with efficient energy use that are uncommon to the rest of the fighting forces. One is that a Soldier positioned to stand guard at an outpost, or forward operating base, should not have to think about energy — a distraction from the strategy and Soldier protection. In Continue reading →
Troops in a tactical environment have unique challenges with efficient energy use that are uncommon to the rest of the fighting forces. One is that a Soldier positioned to stand guard at an outpost, or forward operating base, should not have to think about energy — a distraction from the strategy and Soldier protection. In Continue reading →
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) extend their support for the transpolar® Working Group’s efforts to develop uniform open source risk scoring standards and rating criteria for solar projects that will facilitate lower transaction and capital costs, and improve project finance liquidity within the Continue reading →
The Army is implementing ways to use energy more efficiently to protect Soldiers, conserve resources and enhance mission capabilities. “Energy is mission critical. It is a vulnerability. It is a risk,” said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. via Army Sees Smart Energy as Mission Critical | Military.com.
The sting of the California electricity crisis and the Enron disaster is now more than a decade behind us as the slow push to deregulate U.S. utility markets continues with states like Texas leading the way. The issue of deregulating utility markets is complicated and contains risk. But I’d just like to look at the Continue reading →
Solar and wind energy require a lot of upfront capital, but provide steady, predictable returns over 25-year-plus project lifetimes. These are the kind of assets in demand by often-conservative institutional investors. Managers of pension, insurance, sovereign wealth and endowment funds control an estimated $71 trillion in potential investments in search of low-risk, modest-return opportunities. via Continue reading →
Smart Utility Systems (SUS), a global leader in products, solutions and services that accelerate return on smart grid investments for the energy and utility sector, today announced the launch of SUS Smart Energy Retail-Lite, a hosted solution for handling all aspects of energy trading and risk management for the retail sector. The cloud-based solution will Continue reading →
With electricity use growing at less than 1% per year, power companies are “scrambling to trim spending or redirect capital investments to improve profits,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Some have started building new high-voltage transmission lines, which offer a higher than average return. At the same time demand is falling, costs are going up, according to Continue reading →
The Department of Energy’s high-risk early stage grant program, ARPA-E, has announced 66 new energy-related projects that will get small amounts of funding and mentorship from the DOE. ARPA-E said that it will give 66 groups — from universities, to startups, to government labs to large companies — a combined $130 million through its Open Continue reading →
A Department of Energy agency that funds high-risk, high-payoff research, has awarded engineers at Case Western Reserve University $567,805 to develop a “rustbelt” battery with unprecedented flexibility and utility. For more than year, the Cleveland-based researchers have been investigating ways to build a flow battery primarily using water and iron, hence the name. A flow Continue reading →
More than 17,000 people have converged on the Qatari capital for the latest U.N. climate talks, but the most influential presence may be Sandy. The superstorm that ravaged the U.S. Northeast a month ago seared into the American consciousness an apocalyptic vision of what climate change could look like. On the heels of devastating wildfires, Continue reading →
Lena Hansen at the Rocky Mountain Institute’s electricity practice has two problems with today’s power grid. One, it’s centralized. Power plants far away transmit electricity on long power lines at risk in storms. And when storms strike, that’s when Hanson gets a bit disparaging. “The grid really isn’t very smart,” Hansen says. “It’s dumb in Continue reading →
By Tuesday morning, more than eight million people were left without power after Hurricane Sandy churned water onto roads, tunnels and into homes and businesses across the East. Substations exploded in New York City. Atlantic City was inundated. Trees went down across Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In New Jersey, the hardest-hit state, about two-thirds of Continue reading →
The state’s utility commissioners are considering revamping how electricity is bought and sold in the wholesale market, trying to balance increasing the risk of rolling blackouts against “sticker shock,” as its consultants put it, if they get it wrong. The three commissioners appear split over whether to tweak the nation’s lone energy-only market, which pays Continue reading →
Singapore has taken a step towards making its energy market leaner and more responsive. Consumers may soon benefit from a wide range of energy prices selected according to the timing and size of their consumption. Businesses may also be able to hedge against the risk of high energy prices. via Smart moves for S’pore’s energy Continue reading →
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Clasma Events are hosting the first GridSec Summit in San Francisco, CA, October 22-24, to address the critical issues around cyber security and risk management for the nation’s electrical infrastructure. This summit will bring together grid-security leaders for in-depth dialogue on the threats, opportunities, drivers and challenges of Smart Continue reading →
Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, a Halloween snowstorm, the hottest summer on record. The region’s dramatic weather over the last year underscores the cost — in dollars, lives and livelihoods — of a changing climate. Today’s special report, “Irene: Then & Now,” (see LoHud.com) makes clear how much the region has suffered from unpredictable and Continue reading →
On the campaign trail in Colorado Thursday President Obama assailed Mitt Romney for opposing the tax break for wind energy production, saying the presumptive nominee would put tens of thousands of jobs at risk by letting them expire. “At a moment when homegrown energy, renewable energy, is creating new jobs in states like Colorado and Continue reading →
Declaring that today’s electrical grid is unacceptably at high risk of extended outages, the Defense Department is spearheading a $30 million effort to prove it can cobble together a host of traditional and renewable sources into a smart microgrid capable of powering a military installation for an extended period of time. The effort, a program Continue reading →
The multi-year battle between power producers and demand response providers continues with the June filing by numerous energy trade groups challenging the March 2011 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling 745 allowing demand response providers to be paid the same price as generators, the locational marginal price (LMP), for energy saved during peak times. The petitioners include Continue reading →
