For today’s company spotlight, I wanted to look at smart meters. Smart meters have been in use since 2006 in the United States and have gained wide penetration in some areas and caused backlashes in others. In the near future many utilities will be switching their customers over to this technology. So what exactly are [...]
Archive for the ‘Smart Grid’ Category
Itron: A Global Leader in Smart Meters
May 21st, 2012 
John Basalla DOE’s SunShot Initiative Announces Funding Opportunity for “Plug and Play” Photovoltaic Systems
May 4th, 2012 Chris DeArmond The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) SunShot Initiative is an ambitious program that aims to dramatically reduce the cost of solar energy. By the end of the decade, one of SunShot’s official goals is to cut the cost of photovoltaic (PV) systems by 75 percent, or to about 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Besides making the cost [...]
FFF: Green Peace Study on Server Farms
April 20th, 2012 Justin Manger Mobile internet services based in the “cloud” are a part of daily life and continue to proliferate. Given the huge amounts of energy needed to power the data centers that are the backbone of our online life, Greenpeace recently released a “How Green Is Your Cloud” study comparing which internet companies are the most environmentally [...]
MIT Study Details Future of Grid and Renewable Energy
March 12th, 2012 Eric Wilson A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) looked at what it deemed as “One of the most important emerging challenges facing the grid . . . the need to incorporate more renewable generation in response to policy initiatives at both state and federal levels.” At issue is the intermittent nature of many [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, News, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid 
Tags: Battery, Biomass, Coal, Electric Vehicles, Electricity Generation, Grid, Hydroelectricity, Nuclear, Solar Energy, Wind Power 
No Comments »Apple’s “Project Dolphin” To Include One of Nation’s Largest Green Energy Facilities
February 22nd, 2012 Justin Manger Near Maiden, North Carolina Apple is building a huge data center that will, of course, require huge amounts of energy to power the facility. Apple, in its latest environmental report, states that the data center will include the largest “end user-owner, onsite” solar array in the U.S. Or, in less slippery terms, that all the [...]
Update on Tesla: Still Losing Money But Ramping Up
February 20th, 2012 Justin Manger Now that the Big Three automakers are back on their feet and turning a profit after imploding during the financial crisis (only Ford didn’t take government bailout money), it has to seem harder than ever for a start-up car company to compete in this brutally cut-throat industry. Tesla Motors, however, is not to be dismissed. In [...]
Honeywell Goes After Nest Labs for Patent Infringement
February 7th, 2012 Justin Manger As we have profiled here, Nest Labs has come up with a clean and classy look for their new energy saving and “auto-learning” thermostat. They will now have to come up with a team of lawyers to defend allegations from Honeywell International that Nest infringes on several (seven to be precise) patents that Honeywell has for [...]
Posted in Business, Economics, Green Products, Justin Manger, News, Smart Grid Tags: Energy Conservation, Green Product, Green Technology No Comments »Largest Windfarm in U.S. Slated for Wyoming
February 2nd, 2012 Justin Manger Even given the backlash over the very public bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra, the Obama administration remains set on pushing clean energy. It has fast tracked plans for the largest windfarm in the U.S., a 2,000 to 3,000MW facility that will consist of 1,000 wind turbine generators and be built just south of Rawlins, Wyoming. [...]
Martifer: Solar Power for Projects Big and Small
November 23rd, 2011 Justin Manger With the world standing on the ledge of an energy revolution, what will be the technology that takes us over the edge? Photovoltaic systems may hold the answer. Though not immune from criticism, solar power bathes half the world in light all the time and is awash in energy. There is really no other source of energy [...]
Nest Thermostats Sold-out, Ship Today
November 11th, 2011 Justin Manger Shipping a few weeks ahead of schedule, Nest thermostats that learn from your interaction and program themselves, will soon be appearing in homes around the country. Even at $249 a pop, the devices are sold out and currently on back order. It’s a sleek, smart device that people are clamoring for in their bid to save money, [...]
