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Electricity Grid

Why is China Investing $3.7 Billion in Direct Current Transmission Lines?

May 16, 2012 by Nigel Morris
with 1,131 views
3

Triff/Shutterstock

In the late 1880′s Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse waged “the War of Currents” , each battling to demonstrate the merits and advantages of Edison’s Direct Current distribution system and Westinghouse’s preffered Alternating Current distribution system.The quite bizarre antics that followed are the stuff of history now (and some... [read more]

The Opportunities And Pitfalls Of Managing Smart Grid Data

May 16, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 143 views
0

At the advent of the Internet 30 years ago, having large amounts of personal information accessible on a shared network would have been unthinkable — even if that network would make our lives easier. But we found a way to navigate this privacy minefield with one straightforward idea: Entrust our personal information to certain entities... [read more]

Managing Peaks without Overbuilding the Electric Grid

May 15, 2012 by Christine Hertzog
with 342 views
1

3DDock/Shutterstock

The old wireline Bell telephone system was built for Mother’s Day. The Bell system network planners knew that this one day in May was the mother of all phone call traffic peaks in the USA. They designed their networks for that anticipated capacity. The network planners had an 11th Commandment that influenced their operations: “Thou shalt... [read more]

U.S. Coal Generation Drops 19 Percent In One Year

May 14, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 383 views
0

Power generation from coal is falling quickly. According to new figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal made up 36 percent of U.S. electricity in the first quarter of 2012 — down from 44.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011.That stunning drop, which represented almost a 20 percent decline in coal generation over... [read more]

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Saudi Arabia to Unleash Solar by Investing $109 Billion

May 14, 2012 by Rhys Clay
with 826 views
7

cofkocof/Shutterstock

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil plans to install a solar capacity of 41,000 megawatts by 2032. Critics have noted that to achieve this, Saudi Arabia would need to produce and export approximately half of the world’s total annual installed capacity of solar. Can the country achieve this ambitious target? [read more]

Why Storage?

May 14, 2012 by James Greenberger
with 263 views
0

cardiae /Shutterstock

It is not clear that the automotive market alone will provide an advanced battery market of sufficient size and immediacy to attract the necessary capital and innovation. Using a potentially larger market for the deployment of similar batteries in DES systems on the grid to leverage the automotive market, however, would make for a large, combined market. [read more]

The Smarter the Grid, the Less You Should Notice It

May 13, 2012 by Tyler Hamilton
with 304 views
0

Image courtesy of author

The smart grid is more than just smart meters. My Clean Break column this week takes a look at how Toronto Hydro is trying to modernize its electrical distribution system with a range of smart-grid technologies that don’t get much press.  ---Richard Ford doesn’t like the term smart grid. “It means different things to different... [read more]

Baby You Can Drive My (Electric) Car

May 11, 2012 by Scott Edward Anderson
with 474 views
7

Electric vehicles have come a long way since the days for the botched EV-1 experiment of the 1990s. Fisker KarmaFormerly considered tin cans without much oomph or sex appeal, EVs took a back seat to the more trendy hybrids (Prius) and powerful SUVs. Yet, if this year's EVS26 at the Los Angeles Convention Center proves one thing to... [read more]

PG&E Proposes New & Improved Rates for Electric Car Customers

May 10, 2012 by Max Baumhefner
with 231 views
0

mmaxer/Shutterstock

Today, the biggest electric utility in California, the largest car market in the country, took an important step to give drivers access to a cleaner fuel that’s roughly the equivalent of buck-a-gallon gasoline.  Pacific Gas & Electric (“PG&E”) has submitted a proposal for new and improved rate plans that encourage electric... [read more]

Replacing nuclear with wind power: Could it be done?

May 10, 2012 by Joseph Koblich
with 902 views
16

SILIAN/Shutterstock

Many people would like it to be theoretically possible to replace nuclear power with wind power, since the wind is a free resource. The way that I would like to approach the topic is to not discuss the source of power, but to discuss this question from the perspective of “intermittency.” Stating the question another way: Can an... [read more]

The 21st Century Energy Transformation will be an Evolution, not a Revolution

May 9, 2012 by Sonita Lontoh
with 520 views
1

smartgrid.gov

The possibilities to become active participants in the 21st century energy evolution are plentiful. But to succeed in it, one needs to understand the fundamentals of the business and have the strategic focus, resolve, and patience to ride it for the long run. [read more]

Norway Loves The Nissan Leaf … But Why?

May 9, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 875 views
2

image via Nissan

Nissan recently sent out a release to the automotive press touting the fact that the company had sold 1,000 Nissan Leafs in Norway in just six months. The company went on to claim that the Leaf became the second-best selling Nissan in Norway and the ninth-best selling passenger car overall in February, claiming almost 2 percent of the... [read more]

Overheated rods & rhetoric

May 8, 2012 by Steve Skutnik
with 1,005 views
23

IEEE spectrum

A little knowledge is sometimes a dangerous thing - particularly when fundamentally incomplete technical knowledge is used to make sweeping engineering recommendations. The latest example of this is the concern over the spent fuel storage pools at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, which has been getting attention from several corners. First,... [read more]

Is An Electricity Négociant in our Future?

May 7, 2012 by Christine Hertzog
with 406 views
0

David Kay/Shutterstock

Ahh, California.  The land of milk and honey.   And wine – lots of it.  Silicon Valley denizens like me can find vineyards and wineries within a 30 minute drive in any direction.  So it stands to reason that we’re more focused on the wine business than other parts of the country.  There’s a term that is... [read more]

Can the Utility Industry Keep Its Momentum?

May 3, 2012 by Dick DeBlasio
with 186 views
0

Pi-Lens/Shutterstock

The necessity of modernizing the world’s electricity-delivery grids has captured worldwide consensus over the last decade, and important and informative strides toward that goal have been taken around the globe.But, as we enter a critical period of transition in smart-grid development, a key question arises: Can—or, more precisely, will—... [read more]