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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Electricity Generation’
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 [...]
Five Friday Facts: U.S. Navy as Energy Innovator
May 4th, 2012 Justin Manger Here is an interesting time line from a pamphlet from the Esri Federal GIS Conference on the Navy’s evolution with energy, including last year’s large purchase of biofuels. 1774: USS Alfred, Navy’s first battleship, powered by wind and sails. 1955: USS Nautilus, first nuclear submarine 2009: First Navy aircraft engine tested on biofuel blend 2010: [...]
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 [...]
An Unusual Two For One: Controlling Weeds While Generating Energy
April 16th, 2012 Justin Manger Working with Coretec Inc., a manufacturer that specializes in energy-saving machinery and systems, Fuji Electric announced last December that they had come up with a weed-control mat that is now getting attention as a possible new application for photovoltaic power. Municipalities in Japan occasionally use weed-control mats over soil to keep unused or sloped areas [...]
Apple To Use Bloom Energy Fuel Cells At New Data Center
April 4th, 2012 Justin Manger In a following up to our post in February about the green data center Apple is planning to build in North Carolina, a few more interesting details about the facility have come to light. Aside from being LEED Platinum certified and having the largest end-user solar power array in the U.S., there will also be [...]
LightSail Energy, Storing the Wind and Sun
April 3rd, 2012 Eric Wilson The days of a single dominant energy source are just about over. In the U.S., no one source provides a majority of the energy that is converted into electricity. Recent numbers put coal at the top of several sources. It is responsible for 45% of the electricity generated as of 2010. Moving forward, there will be a [...]
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 »Creative Localization of Solar Power at Japanese Oyster Farms
March 2nd, 2012 Justin Manger Big companies that operate worldwide use product localization to cater to the tastes and preferences of the various countries in which they conduct business. At the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta you can taste soda from around the world and discover how some variations are much sweeter than others. In Japan, there is no Diet Coke, [...]
New Energy Innovation Hub for Batteries and Energy Storage
February 29th, 2012 Eric Wilson Earlier this month Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced “plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years.” The purpose of this newest hub “will be to deliver research leading to revolutionary new technologies.” Applications are due [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Renewable Energy Tags: Battery, Coal, Department of Energy, Electricity Generation, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Solar Energy, Stephen Chu, Wind Power No Comments »
