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distributed generation

Boosting Electricity Reliability and Availability via Microgrids

September 9, 2011 by Dick DeBlasio
with 383 views
1

In addition to reducing carbon footprint, empowering customers to more cost-efficiently manage their energy usage and fueling new business opportunities, the Smart Grid offers tremendous promise in terms of improving the reliability and availability of electricity service. Increased reliance on “microgrids” is one way how.In a microgrid... [read more]

Starter Homes Get Solar Panels As Standard Equipment

March 28, 2011 by Todd Woody
with 336 views
3

Among the standard features offered for new homes at Manzanita at Paseo del Sol, a KB Home development in a desert suburb southeast of Los Angeles, are nine-foot ceilings, six-panel doors and a 1.4-kilowatt solar array.While KB Home has offered rooftop photovoltaic panels as an option for some time, the home builder now will... [read more]

Industrial Process Heat and the SmAHTR

March 10, 2011 by Charles Barton
with 783 views
5

Current energy plans, and energy discussions largely ignore several future energy problems. For example, may industrial processes require significant heat. About 2/3 of the energy used in industry is used in the form of heat. The other third is in the form of electricity, or which a significant portion is transformed into heat. Thus... [read more]

Colorado Promotes Clean Energy with HB 1228

February 22, 2011 by Taylen Peterson
with 719 views
0

Under a new bill to be put before the Colorado House on Feb. 23, Colorado’s Office of Economic Development (OED) would be required to institute a study of the likely benefits of distributed generation from renewable energy sources like solar. Introduced by State Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Dist. 5) and Representatives Edward Vigil (D- Dist... [read more]

Two new entries to market for small modular reactors

February 18, 2011 by Dan Yurman
with 1,674 views
0

Westinghouse and Holtec offer “passively safe” light water reactor designs Two new small modular reactor designs were announced this week, both using scaled down light water reactor (LWR) designs. The use of conventional reactor technologies well understood by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may speed up approval for commercial use.... [read more]

Can Carbon Emissions Markets Accelerate Smart Grid Progress?

December 27, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 1,675 views
0

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) recently initiated rule making for the state’s cap and trade regulation as part of AB 32, and it’s an important tactic towards reducing California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The first step to reduce the state’s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and then an additional... [read more]

FERC Ruling Is Good News for Feed-in-Tariffs and Distributed Generation

November 1, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 1,425 views
1

Distributed generation (DG) is one important realization of the Smart Grid to improve grid reliability and add jobs to local economies.  At residential, microgrid or utility-scale levels, DG increases options for powering the distribution grid in the event of centralized generation or transmission failures.  Last week the... [read more]

15MW Kaiser Permanente Announcement

April 5, 2010 by Arno Harris
with 240 views
0

On Tuesday, Recurrent Energy announced a 15MW project with Kaiser Permanente. It's an exciting announcement because it shows the unique role onsite generation can play in the renewable portfolio--when you put the right kind of buildings together with a customer who is committed to sustainability. The 15MW will be made up of... [read more]

BUGS in the Smart Grid

March 15, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 512 views
0

Don’t you just love acronyms?  I do, which is a good thing since I write the Smart Grid Dictionary, which is loaded with them.  Acronyms are shorthand for common phrases, and there are certainly plenty of them in the Smart Grid business.    Imagine my delight when I encountered a new acronym last week – BUGS.... [read more]

Distributed solar goes wide

February 11, 2010 by Todd Woody
with 322 views
1

Artist rendering: Recurrent Energy A couple of stories on the boom in distributed solar. As I wrote the New York Times: As big solar power plants planned for the desert Southwest remain bogged down in environmental disputes, utilities increasingly are turning to so-called distributed solar rooftop arrays and small photovoltaic farms... [read more]

Recurrent Energy Signs 50MW Solar PPAs with SCE

February 2, 2010 by Arno Harris
with 258 views
3

Recurrent Energy made a really exciting announcement today. We revealed we recently signed three power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Southern California Edison (SCE) for a combined total of 50WM of solar capacity. A rendering of one of the projects is shown above and gives a sense of the scale of what we're doing. For... [read more]

A Bill Gates for Distributed Generation?

July 2, 2008 by Joseph Romm
with 114 views
1

This week’s issue of The Economist features a commemorative piece on Bill Gates, who stepped down from his position as Chief Executive Officer (or CEO) of Microsoft last week. Gates had an arguably turbulent career, due to his aggressive or monopolistic business tactics as the lead in the industry, but one that has been inconceivably... [read more]