The 21st Century Smart Grid
What is the Smart Grid and how will it impact U.S. energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions? What major projects are underway and how much will they cost? The B-Green Collaborative investigates and provides you the answers.
Residential Heating Efficiency – Furnaces, Boiler, & Heat Pumps
This article discusses various heating systems and the opportunities to reduce fossil fuel consumption for residential heating. The discussion will review heating system efficiency, costs of different energy sources, and the GHG emissions from these sources. It will also help you compare your existing heating system efficiency to the best currently available systems to determine if it’s replacement is economically justifiable.
Week in Review: February 28, 2010 to March 7, 2010
- On Tuesday, President Obama outlined more details of a new “HOMESTAR” program that would help create jobs by encouraging American families to invest in energy saving home improvements. Key components of the HOMESTAR Program include: rebates at the point of sale for a variety of energy-saving investments in homes; Silver Star rebates up to $1,000 – $1,500 for doing any of a straightforward set of upgrades; Gold Star rebates of $3,000 for a whole home energy audit and subsequent retrofits tailored to achieve a 20% energy savings; a requirement that contractors be certified to perform efficiency installations; and support to State and local governments to provide financing options for consumers seeking to make efficiency investments in their homes (Read more).
- On Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $100 million in Recovery Act funding will be made available to accelerate innovation in green technology, increase America’s competitiveness and create new jobs. The three areas of focus for this funding will be: Grid-Scale Rampable Intermittent Dispatchable Storage (GRIDS); Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT); and Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEET-IT) (Read more).
- On Wednesday, Japan’s Kyocera announced it would begin manufacturing photovoltaic solar modules in San Diego, California this year as part of an effort to expand its U.S. business. The San Diego facility will produce about 2.5 megawatts of modules per month, or 30 MW per year. Production is expected to begin in June, 2010 and will ramp up the total output capacity quickly. Kyocera plans to more than double its current global output of the solar modules that turn sunlight into electricity to one gigawatt by March 2013 (Read more).
- U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced on Wednesday that the Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment on a $117 million loan guarantee to finance the construction and start-up of an innovative 30 megawatt (MW) wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii. Kahuku Wind Power, LLC will install twelve 2.5 MW wind turbine generators along with a battery energy storage system for electricity load stability. The project will contribute to Hawaii’s Clean Energy Initiative goal of meeting 70 percent of the state’s energy needs with clean energy by 2030 (Read more).
- Google’s “Green Energy Czar” Bill Weihl recently announced that the company is working to develop a new mirror technology that would significantly reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants. The project is focused on reducing the cost of the heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun and concentrate its power on a point so that it can be used to create steam and drive a turbine. Google has reportedly developed new materials for the mirror’s reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted. According to Weihl, “Google is looking to cut the cost of making heliostats by at least a factor of two, and ideally by a factor of three or four” (Read more).
Articles
Educating For A Greener Future!
Current and future green energy initiatives will have a significant impact on U.S. career opportunities going forward, and individuals planning to benefit from this transformation will need to be educated and trained in emerging energy technologies and new areas of energy expertise.
Residential Energy Efficiency – Heating Losses
Residential heating requires about 55% of residential energy consumption. This article will discuss a variety of methods to reduce your heating costs that generally can be accomplished quickly and at a low cost.
Energy Efficiency – Greenhouse Gas Reduction
It’s well documented that a reduction of greenhouse gases will require a multi-pronged approach, involving a combination of new technologies along with some existing but not often popular clean energy technologies.
Geothermal Your Home?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Geothermal Heat Pumps are “the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning systems available”.
Models of Our Future Electricity Supply: Power Sources and Costs
The sources of our power, the technology behind its generation and the costs we pay for using it are going to change dramatically. In this report, we discuss models of likely changes in our electric generation sources to achieve reduced emission goals.
Interviews
Comments on Regulatory Issues Affecting the Smart Grid, in an Interview with Laura Manz, Managing Director, L. J. Manz Consulting
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), charged with ensuring a reliable electric grid, will have a major impact on the operational standards and the pace of implementation of the Smart Grid. The B-Green Collaborative spoke to Laura Manz, an expert on regulatory issues affecting the Smart Grid.
Comments on U.S. Department of Energy Funding for the Smart Grid in an Interview with Srini Krishnamurthy
The U.S. Department of Energy is funneling huge amounts of money to begin the transformation of our electric grid to a Smart Grid. Srini Krishnamurthy, a consultant for the DoE’s Office of Electric Delivery and Energy Reliability, discusses how much money is being invested, how it is being leveraged and what program areas are being selected for funding.
Interview with Gregg Dixon, Senior V.P. of Marketing at EnerNOC
EnerNOC is a new, fast-growing company in the business of saving its customers money while reducing electricity peak loading demands. As an early purveyor of smart grid technology, we spoke to EnerNOC’s Gregg Dixon, Sr. VP of Marketing, to understand their business model and how the need to reduce greenhouse gases is impacting them.
Interview with Melissa Aho, President of Ultra Geothermal, Inc.
The B-GC spoke with Melissa Aho, President of Ultra Geothermal, Inc., a leading residential geothermal installer in New England. Read what she has to say about using a geothermal system to more efficiently condition the living space of your home.
Interview with Rich Richels, Economist at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Co-Author of the MERGE Model
Recently, the B-GC reviewed the results of an EPRI-developed model called MERGE (model for estimating the regional and global effects of greenhouse gas reductions). To further understand and appreciate this model, we spoke to its principal developer, Rich Richels, an economist at EPRI. In this interview, he explains the basis of the model and its principal insights.
Latest Guest Column
VSATS Takes First Step Toward Greener Airports
The Commonwealth of Virginia’s Aviation Department and Virginia SATS (Small Aircraft Transportation System) took Governor Kaine’s “Green” challenge seriously with the environmental assessment of Virginia’s community airports.
