Smart Grid Library

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change begins its latest meeting today in Durban, South Africa.  Only the sunniest of optimists expect real progress in forging a global agreement as developing and developed nations argue about voluntary versus legally binding emissions reductions and funding measures.     There’s no single answer to the climate change [...]

The recent exits of Google’s PowerMeter and Microsoft’s Hohm products targeted at consumers have some industry watchers asking if residential consumers really care about home energy consumption data.  Where we once had a monthly bill that simply indicated the previous month’s kilowatthours of electricity use, smart meters can provide data as often as needed (although [...]

The political events in the Middle East and North Africa are raising global oil prices and causing economies to wobble.  The easy and inexpensively extracted oil has been exploited, and what sources remain, like tar sands, consume ever more energy, water, and money for extraction.  Oil, as one of the primary fossil fuels in our [...]

The integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar into the nation’s electricity supply is an important Smart Grid capability.   Solar and wind are intermittent energy sources that need energy storage to guarantee electricity when needed, but the sun will continue to shine, and the wind continue to blow, regardless of politics.  Increased electricity [...]

Tis the season for the final flurry of business conferences before the Christmas holiday.  Last week I attended a Venture Capital Summit and an event focused on Emobility.  Emobility covers electric vehicles (EVs) and electrified transportation for individual or mass use.  There were two common messages within these conferences:  People are emotional about their car [...]

There’s a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt – the FUD factor – around Smart Grid technologies and what’s in store in our energy future.  Everyone is concerned about rising electricity costs.  Everyone should recognize that global warming is a real threat to our national security.  The Smart Grid can address these concerns, but the [...]

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”  Charles F. Kettering, American inventor of the electrical ignition system and early distributed generation devices, made this observation.  As an inventor, he had ample experience as a change agent in trying to explain new ideas and technologies to skeptical potential customers [...]

A couple of statistics recently caught my attention.  The first was that in the month of May, Americans purchased more SUVs than any other type of vehicle.  Gas guzzlers, not hybrids or gas-sipping vehicles.  This happens while we have a catastrophic oil spill fouling critical habitat for land and marine species, along with the massive [...]

The greatest environmental disaster in US history began on April 20, two days before Earth Day.  Even if a miracle occurred and the well stopped leaking now, the damage to the marine and coastal environments will need years to recover.  Who knows – any hurricane that whips up these oiled waters may deposit pollutants miles [...]

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill now polluting fragile wetlands of several states is an environmental and economic disaster.  This is the downside of an addiction to oil, and it should serve as a potent reminder of the strategic value that electric vehicles will have to eliminating significant sources of carbon emissions and that crap [...]