For some interesting perspective on smart grid, as well as a discussion of alternative energy, I suggest you check out the recent webcast I did with Brian MacCleery of National Instruments. It's about half an hour long and comes with an interesting, downloadable PowerPoint. It's located here.
In Washington State, wind farm owners are getting shafted by the power companies. They invested a LOT of money to build their generating capacity. This year, there is an abundance of water for hydro generation. As a result, the power companies are asking the wind farms to CUT production (as in, CUT their revenues).
There's a long way to go, and with business ethics such as this, the road seems even longer.
Great observations, ivank2139. An important push can come from consumers and small-scale generators, operating from the bottom up, but utilities often have reasons for dragging feet on top-down planning. Let's hope DoE, EPRI, and regional utility company coalitions can overcome that reticence.
This is an area of innovation that will be part of our infrastructure for a long time. I would be pleased to hear the California initiatives of the big three become part of a National Energy Plan.
From my point of view as a consumer, I am willing to do quite a bit to drive this smart grid from the bottom up. Showing the consumer how to save money and be an efficient part of this infrastructure will help a lot.
Making local information available to utilities would help them provide more efficient services so they surely are interested in being part of the solution. What I have noticed though is they don't want to sell the consumer less power.
It is up to the consumer to be as efficient in the usage of the power. For that we need detailed information on appliances using power and on making that usage efficient.
I would like to see good cooperation from the utilities when the consumer is able to supply excess power from on site generation. This is good for the entire system but since it decreases the revenues to the utilities their interest in this is limited.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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