Recently, I’ve asked smart grid industry experts if home area networks (HANs) and in-home display units for energy monitoring come with factory installed settings. Most have responded that they do not, and that it will be up to the individual to determine what settings are appropriate for their home or office – if any.

To bring energy dialogue to the dinner table, Tendril Networks has partnered with a yet-to-be announced company to launch a video game in which conserving energy is the key to winning. Speaking at Gridweek 2009, Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck mentioned the collaboration as a way to bring children into the conversation on energy use from an early age. Studies have shown that children and teenagers have a strong influence on purchases made by parents. Knowing this, a new approach is being applied to energy conservation: educate the children in order to alter adult behavior. This video game is just one innovative way in which to engage the consumer and, hopefully, change consumption patterns through a unique education and awareness campaign.

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The smart grid is unique on Capitol Hill compared to other issues in that it has sustained broad and bipartisan support from members of Congress. According to Dr. Jackson, this is true because each member has a different view on how to meet our future clean energy goals. “The smart grid is in the eye of the beholder,” said Jackson to a crowd of energy industry veterans looking towards the future of the grid.

We really need to think about the next step in the whole process…to make sure that [our current] investments capture the full potential of the smart grid.

With the smart grid as a key enabler of future energy goals such as more renewable energy and demand side reduction, we are bound to see attention paid towards clean energy integration. However, Dr Jackson does not anticipate that we will see much direct federal legislation in relation to the smart grid over the next few years. Rather, due to the intertwined nature of our cumulative clean energy goals, smart grid provisions will inevitably be incorporated.

Dr. Jackson’s work on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources includes smart grid, distributed generation, manufacturing and industrial competitiveness, federal energy research and development, and advanced energy storage technologies. GetSolar will continue to cover issues discussed at the Platts conference over the next few days, so check back here for more smart grid and distributed solar news.

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As the summer of 2009 enters full swing, the term “smart grid” is popping up everywhere.  Capitol Hill, General Electric, Google, Cisco, the Obama Administration, and maybe even your local utility have started talking about building out the smart grid.  Major dictionaries and encyclopedias have yet to define the term, yet those operating within the sector have each attempted to describe exactly what the smart grid is.  After culling through various public and private sector reports, the smart grid can best be defined as the application of 21^st century information technology to bring about more efficient use of electricity from production to consumption.

Companies such as Google, Tendril, Silver Spring Networks, GE, and more have all begun to bring innovative technologies to the smart grid table.  Many of these companies are beginning to forge partnerships with utilities in order to see the application of smart grid technology.  A perfect example of this is Tendril, which has partnered with Xcel Energy to create a “Smart Grid City” in Boulder, CO.  The purpose is to use the Boulder pilot as a platform in which to learn more about how advanced meters work, how to improve the information loop between consumer and utility, and if consumers will indeed alter behavior and become active participants in energy consumption.

Now that we have an idea on what the smart grid entails and who some of the major players are in the industry, the next step is to understand why we need to upgrade our energy grid and, in essence, get smart with regard to our electrical network.

Next Week

The Smart Grid, Part II: Why We Need It

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So, why is this the first solar-powered AC unit, if it makes so much darned sense? As I mentioned, the cost is much higher, though the amount it knocks off your electric bill should help it pay for itself long before its useful life is over. Because of this, a solar-powered AC wouldn’t be ideal for those parts of the country that only use AC a few months (or weeks) per year–the units would take far longer to pay for themselves. Also, these units make most sense for the hottest regions because they’re more efficient at higher temperatures:

It’s no secret that in this traditional system, the hotter it is outside, the harder and longer the AC works and the more electricity it uses. With Sedna, [Sedna Air president Jim] Hammond said, the hotter it is outside, the fewer amps used and the more efficient.

“In any air conditioning, the only components that use electricity are fans to move the air in the compressor and condenser,” Hammond said. “When you use 23 amps that way, you only use 7 with solar powering.”

This inaugural installation was performed by American Solar Energy, LLC, for a customer who already uses solar to heat his home’s hot water and swimming pool.

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A shorter-term fix for higher solar panel efficiency rates is the PowerString technology from Act Solar, Inc. Act says that its product can instantly boost (by 6-11%) the efficiency of any solar installation. It “complements central inverters by dynamically re-circulating small amounts of electricity, as needed…[It] actively maintains the balance of the array, which assures maximum power output.” (Renewable Energy World)

Designed to perform in windy, rainy, and cloudy conditions, a new solar thermal collector panel produced by Irish firm Surface Power claims to be dramatically more efficient than any other solar thermal panel on the market. With vastly improved performance in morning hours and decently improved performance in the afternoon, the panels have the potential to help homeowners save even more money on domestic hot water than they can with exisiting solar thermal systems. We’ll see (a) how it goes, and (b) if the company makes enough to ship over this way, but a product designed for the Irish climate would certainly be right at home in our Pacific Northwest, or in the Northeast.

And, last but not least (but let’s be honest, most obscure), Advanced Solar Photonics (ASP) has come out with a new method for cutting glass for solar panels. The technology uses lasers to separate glass at the molecular level instead of relying on the old “score and stomp on it” method, thus saving product waste. It would be slightly more helpful if they were conserving silicon, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. The glass is structurally stronger when cut with this method, virtually defect-free, and the process saves major production time, so it seems like a cost-saver over the life cycle of the glass–production, shipping, and installation.

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As President-elect Barack Obama prepares for his inauguration, a number of groups have planned balls in Washington to celebrate his arrival. One such event is the Green Inaugural Ball, set for prime-time partying at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium and featuring Wyclef Jean.

The Web site for the Green Inaugural Ball is hosted by a solar-powered data center. AISO.net operates the data center and says it has a 20-kilowatt plant fueled by solar panels.

What’s more,

…the greenies at the unofficial green event will be tipping glasses of free “local and organic beverages,” while dining “on organic and local ingredients with vegetarian and vegan options,” according to the event’s Web site. They’ll also find printed materials made of recycled paper, flower arrangements produced by local growers and tables, linens and flatware rented from a local company, as opposed to a company in far-off Texas…

How much energy the Green Ball Web site actually consumes is anyone’s guess. I’d bet my pants and socks, however, that it’s a heck of a lot less than all that jet fuel burned by the four million guests expected in DC for inauguration-related events. (Attendees can offset the carbon emissions from their flight, however, which I suppose is a plus.)

Having read about the Green Ball, I alternate between (1) feeling uplifted and thankful that we live in a society where green party planning is an actual line of business, and (2) feeling a little hallow inside that planners deem their use of recycled paper and locally rented flatware worthy of special accolade. (What do you want, a cookie?)

To be fair, renewable energy credits will be purchased to offset electricity use, as murky as the details may be. According to the Green Ball Web site, Event Emissary will

make every effort to reduce the power consumption of the Green Ball. The power used to produce the event will be offset by the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits from American Wind, Renewable Choice Energy’s signature portfolio.

Anyway, at 500 bucks a pop, the tickets don’t come cheap. But, then again, who am I to determine the fair price for a chance to see Wyclef Jean in a venue so green it makes *regular* parties look dangerously irresponsible and downright filthy. Ah, the price of a clean conscience… In the end, of course, shrewd observers likely realize that the real chance to tackle energy- and environment-related challenges won’t come this weekend. Rather, it will come over the course of the next four years — and beyond. ‘Til then, you may as well drink your organic drink, and bask in the warm glow of bulbs powered by renewables.

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Forgive the melodrama. It’s just that when I read of technology like this, I feel like I’m really living in the future. If Arthur C. Clarke were around to see this, I’m sure he would just pat himself on the back and keep drinking his tea, but I’m no science fiction visionary and I can’t take this sitting down. Though technically, Clarke was around to see it: the original idea of using magnets to create usable energy belongs to a man named Wesley Gary, who in the unthinkably distant 1870s patented a device that essentially manipulated magnetic fields to spin a motor. No other equipment needed–just a magnet. It looked a little like this:

I took this image from, and am referencing the original text of, the 1879 Harper’s magazine article which discussed the invention, available here (you can find the invention, the Harper’s article, and the details of the patent easily via a web search; this was the clearest reproduction I found, though the site is not confidence-inspiring). If you subscribe to Harper’s already, you can view the original on their website.

The press release that got me started on all this is from Magnetic Power Inc., what looks like a brand-new company claiming to produce generators whose “principle energy source is the Zero Point Field, which permeates the universe and is abundant, renewable and pollution free.” The tone of the press release and their website is one of rabid enthusiasm for the product and for their vision of a shiny clean future. I can’t quite imagine auto manufacturers jumping for joy at the thought of a car engine that never wears out…but if it makes them happy to dream, hey, who am I to judge?

This technology is, if it’s viable at all, in its infancy. And commercial application is so far behind that it seems quite premature to be pushing adoption of this energy source. On the other hand, we know we’re looking at a future–and not a distant one–of fossil fuel independence, and we’re still struggling to figure out how we’re going to make that happen. There are so many proven renewable technologies that desperately need funding and development, not to mention implementation, that it’s difficult to imagine where magnetism would fit into the panoply. But if it’s possible, if it’s clean, if it’s actionable…the Jetsons may stroll on to this scene yet.

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