(Reference: www.renewableenergyfocus.com)
The GridWise Alliance has released two reports detailing the most important metrics associated with measuring and understanding smart grid success.
“These reports can be used as additional tools for state commissioners and investment decision-makers as they consider both public and private investments in smart grid,” says Katherine Hamilton, President of the GridWise Alliance.
(Reference: Dallas Environmental Policy Examiner/Caroline Calais.)
Although electrification undoubtedly was the most significant engineering achievement of the 20th century, the U.S. electric power infrastructure - the grid – is quickly running up against its limitation. Bigger TVs, bigger houses, more air conditioners and more computers coupled with population growth have since 1982 increased our demand for electricity so much that it, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, exceeds transmission growth by almost 25% per year.
This is bad news, especially as spending on research and development within the electric industry – the first step towards innovation and renewal - is among the lowest of all U.S. industries. In fact, since 2000 only 688 additional miles of interstate transmission has been built, and America’s century-old grid consists today of around 300,000 miles of transmission lines and 9,200 electric generating units with 1,000,000 megawatts of generating capacity. It is estimated that system constraints and power quality issues cost American business more than $100 billion each year.
(Reference: http://www.energy.gov)
WASHINGTON, DC – Today at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu highlighted the Department of Energy’s continued commitment to partnering with Native Americans to support the development of clean energy projects on tribal lands that will help reduce energy use, limit carbon pollution, and create new jobs for tribal communities across the country.
(Reference: US Department of Energy)
At the opening of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon on the National Mall, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced up to $87 million will be made available to support the development of new solar energy technologies and the rapid deployment of available carbon-free solar energy systems. Of this funding, $50 million comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The 47 projects with universities, electric power utilities, DOE’s national laboratories, and local governments have been selected to support use of solar technologies in U.S. cities, help address technical challenges, ensure reliable connectivity with the electrical grid, and train a new generation of solar workers to install and maintain solar energy systems. These projects will help speed adoption of solar energy nationwide, while supporting development of a skilled workforce, and continuing to pursue new scientific breakthroughs to increase the efficiency and lower the cost of solar technologies.
(Reference: Metering.Com)
A coalition of 25 local, national and global organizations under the leadership of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), University of California, San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego has been established to transform the San Diego region’s electrical grid into a digital smart grid.
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