Clean, green, renewable energy is one of the biggest drivers of the Smart Grid. Put simply, the world cannot meet its renewable energy goals without an intelligent, interconnected grid. This section will help you find the latest research and reports on key issues such as interconnection, integration, intermittency (and how to handle it), and growth projections.
Results: 284 results found. You are on page 1 of 12 pages.
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is building a series of interconnected laboratories where researchers will be able to test new technologies on simulated and real power systems before plugging them into the electric grid. Get more on the story inside.
A German utility CEO said the country's abrupt move away from nuclear power to wind and solar not only costs far too much, but also is causing grid-related problems for its neighbors. SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst provides perspective on the story.
Materials vital for EV motors and high-efficiency wind turbines and compact fluorescent lights are in short supply, leading to concerns that those shortages could delay adoption of clean energy technologies or make them more costly. Margaret Ryan explains what the DOE hopes to do to attack the problem.
Global wind energy capacity jumped 22% between 2009 and the end of 2010, but the electric industry still has daunting challenges to integrate it effectively, according to a study from Alstom Grid. The report provides plenty of interesting reading in the form of findings and recommendations.
Want to see the future of smart grid storage? Look to China, which just completed a project that uses a 36 MWh energy storage system to integrate 140 MW of wind and solar, making it the country's largest smart grid storage facility and, as SGN Analyst Jesse Berst suggests, a potential template for smart grid storage efforts in the U.S. Click to learn why.
New research from Frost & Sullivan finds that distributed generation could eliminate, or at least reduce, the instances of black outs that are associated with current electric grids relying only on big central power plants. But there's a catch.
The drama over Boulder's SmartGridCity gets the attention, but not far away in Fort Collins, partners in a DOE-funded Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration project are compiling results from their real-world research into load shedding and local energy generation. We talked with a project engineer about lessons learned - like how hard it is to go beyond a 25% reduction in peak load and how real-world constraints (such as the "noise pollution" of a diesel generator) can impact results.
In the conversation about integrating renewables into the grid, geothermal energy is rarely mentioned. So we were intrigued by a report that SRP signed its second agreement to purchase geothermal energy from a plant that will be built in California and that another plant is on the drawing boards in New Mexico. Then we found a study suggesting 2,980,295 MW of geothermal energy could be harnessed in the U.S. using advanced geothermal technologies. Is it time to give geothermal energy more respect? Why or why not? That's this week's Tuesday Topic. Tell us what you think.
Even as it revs up in the U.S., the wind power industry is bracing for the potential of an equally abrupt slowdown at the end of 2012 when the Production Tax Credit is set to expire. Learn more about the outlook for wind energy in this report from AOL Energy.
By the middle of the next decade, natural gas will depose coal as the leading way to generate electricity. The growing availability and lower price of natural gas is changing utility thinking about other options such as coal, nuclear and renewables. For instance, New Jersey's brand new energy plan cuts back on renewables in favor of natural gas and nuclear.
Investor Warren Buffett is taking another big jump into the renewable energy market. This time it's his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company that is buying a 550-megawatt California solar plant that could eventually power 160,000 homes.
We've been talking for years about moving computing into the cloud. What about moving electric power generation into a cloud configuration? We might be able to get there partway, suggests Telvent's Jeffrey Meyers, a concept he dubs "the Partly Cloudy Grid." Click inside to read his forecast.
Industrial distributed generation is expected to grow at an unprecedented rate, according to a new report from Pike Research. Find out why SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst says it's time for utilities to keep a close eye on this growth surge.
A California solar company with agreements to supply power to Southern California Edison is adding thermal energy storage technology to several of its CSP plants. The storage units will store solar power during the evening when the sun is no longer shining but demand is up. Politicians and engineers alike are welcoming the move. Find out why.
Britain continues to push its aggressive smart grid deployment schedule with the announcement of almost $90 million awarded to six pilot projects ranging from automating and optimizing high-voltage networks to incorporating renewables and energy storage into those networks. Another signal that activity is starting to heat up in Europe?
If Congress approves the STORAGE Act introduced earlier this month, Lux Research analyst Brian Warshay says it would not only encourage more large-scale grid storage projects, but do wonders to promote grid storage initiatives paired with intermittent renewable energy generation systems. But will lawmakers go for the investment tax credits the legislation allows?
What is the only form of energy that's price has remained relatively stable for the past 40 years? According to the CEO of thermal energy storage company CALMAC, the answer is off-peak electricity. With its 4,000 installations in 35 countries, Mark MacCracken says CALMAC is scooping up the low-hanging fruit.
Last week Duke Energy Renewables acquired three 1-megawatt commercial solar projects in North Carolina. TMCnet contributor Carl Ford explores why solar production is so limited at these installations when solar farms out West produce hundreds of megawatts.
Silver Spring Networks and Cable&Wireless Worldwide have agreed to participate in the Ecoisland Partnership, the UK's largest energy sustainability smart grid project to date. SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst introduces the story with some thoughts on what this partnership might say about SSN's European market strategy.
With renewable energy developers facing everything from noise complaints to the breakdown of financing and political headwinds, a new online database tool from the Natural Resource Defense Council could mean one less headache. Peter Gardett of AOL Energy explains inside.
A new network of state and regional business groups has formed to promote American innovative energy technologies. While a lot of the right words are being used – electric and plug-in hybrid EVs, energy efficient buildings and renewable energy – SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst wants to be sure smart grid is also part of the vocabulary. There's more inside.
ABB will head up a team of high profile energy industry experts in a DOE-funded study of offshore wind grid interconnection along all U.S. coastal regions. The team will assess all things offshore, from technical and economic aspects to regulatory issues. Find out more inside.
This book offered by Research and Markets addresses the modeling and control of smart grid renewable energy system into electric power systems by integrating three areas of electrical engineering: power system engineering, control systems engineering and power electronics. Due to the complexity of this task, the author presents the basic concepts, then provides a simulation test bed in MATLAB to use these concepts to solve a basic problem in development of smart grid energy systems.
So, what do you do with all those abandoned chunks of land like landfills or mining sites that are so polluted, contaminated or otherwise useless they have no conceivable value? The EPA and DOE think it's worth investigating them for renewable energy production. Find out why.
SGN reported last week that Maui is becoming something of a smart grid test bed with announcement of its second Japan-U.S. smart grid demonstration project in recent months. Now, Silver Spring Networks has been picked for yet another Maui initiative. Get the details on this latest project.
We're getting mixed signals about the vitality of the smart grid market. On the one hand, the recent DistribuTECH conference was one of the most successful ever. On the other, a well-known Wall Street analyst recently told his clients that the smart metering sector is "facing several headwinds," including weak regulatory support in the U.S. and delays in European adoption. Taking the pulse of the smart grid industry is this week's Tuesday Topic.
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