Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog

Even though I am traveling this week, I wanted to keep the blog moving. A couple of weeks ago, I covered the Arizona Community Power Solar Program. In response to that post, Bob Monet, a solar industry advocate, reminded me about a similar but different approach being taken in Brighton Colorado (north of Denver). The project is a cooperative solar farm dubbed Sol Partners. Here is an an excerpt from the June 15, 2009 issue of High Country News:

Last month, a new type of farm sprouted in Brighton, Colo. United Power, the rural electric cooperative that serves the town and a large swath of communities and agricultural lands on the state's northern Front Range, unveiled what's been touted as the nation's first cooperative solar farm. Customers can "rent" one or more of the 48 panels in the 10-kilowatt array for $1,050 apiece, for a 25-year period. In return, United Power credits their monthly utility bills for the power their panels generate. Other electric co-ops see this project as a possible prototype: a way to distribute local renewable energy without forcing customers to pay for the equipment or its installation. "People can even come visit their solar panels," says Troy Whitmore, United Power's director of external affairs. "And the sky's the limit as to how many modules we can have, depending on demand."

Program details:

• 25 year lease contract
• $1,050 investment per 210 watt panel
• Panels are located on United Power's property
• Receive credit on electric bill for energy generated by your panel(s)
• Monitor the farm's production via United Power's website

This is exciting because it allows all electric customers invest in solar. The customer need not own a house suitable for placement of solar panels. Many urban and rural locations have unavoidable shading that makes solar impractical. It also means that renters can invest as little as $1000 and start generating solar energy. Let's face it, homeowners with south-facing roofs are not the only people interested in reducing their carbon footprint through distributed generation. The advantage of this program over the purchase of general carbon offsets is the local, hands-on nature of the investment. Customers know their money is being plowed right back into the community. They know their investment will be managed in a sustainable way. Kudos to United Power for pioneering yet another approach for distributed solar.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 11:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

What's your grid communications strategy? That's the billion-dollar question surrounding smart grid implementations around the world. Do you take the conservative approach and go with power line carrier? Can you leapfrog the existing technologies by waiting for WiMax? Which strategy is cost-effective today yet future-proof against the relentless march of technology? Should you use different technologies to link together the urban, suburban, and rural segments of your grid? How many different technologies will be required? Will you use the same strategy in the home network as in the neighborhood network? Do you bypass all the complications and outsource your communications to a major cell phone carrier?

The communication question revolves primarily around that part of the grid downstream from substations. Most substations are connected by some type of backhaul network which may not bear any resemblance to what will be be used to tie meters together into a “neighborhood area network.” Several criteria must be factored into the decision including reliability, scalability, bandwidth, latency, evolvability, and cost.

One key decision point is between wireline and wireless communications. Wireless is attractive as a way to avoid the expense of stringing new wires. But wireless technologies have drawbacks too. Below are three different wireless technologies attracting interest from the utilities:

RF Mesh – These wireless “radio frequency” networks allow each node on the network to communicate with any other node within range. This increases flexibility and reliability. If a node or a link goes down, it can be bypassed by the neighboring nodes. This improves the fault tolerance of the entire network. And since we're talking about our electrical grid, fault tolerance is a key requirement. Another key requirement is scalability due to the myriad of devices involved (e.g. sensors, meters, thermostats, displays, appliances, and various load plugs). We are talking about tens of millions of nodes. As a peer-to-peer network like the Internet, RF mesh is scalable. PG&E is using RF mesh in their 5 million meter deployment in California. This technology has gained more traction in the US than any other approach. This is the key technology for innovative startups such as Silver Spring and Trilliant.

Cellular 3G – This is the option to outsource your network to public wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. This approach minimizes high up-front deployment costs and turns over network maintenance to the wireless carrier who presumably know how to do it cost-effectively. If the big carriers move into this business full-force, you can count on cellular to be one of the winning long-term solutions. The key part of the previous sentence is “one of the winning solutions.” Cellular may prove too expensive to become the dominant solution but it will be valuable for some utilities in some parts of their network. SmartSynch, for example, is betting that this will be the most cost-effective and scalable solution for many utilities. Given the conservative nature of utilities, they may be right.

WiMax – This is the “holy grail” of communications because it is wireless, long-range, high bandwidth, and low latency. It's everything we need. There's only one problem. It does not exist on the scale needed and no one can be sure that it will rolled out on any particular time table. Even though it is further out on the tech radar, WiMax is an appealing option that adds a FUD-factor to decisions around more mature technologies. Utilities may want to keep their options open, but they certainly can't bet on large-scale deployment of WiMax within a defined timeframe. WiMax uses licensed spectrum which will make it more expensive than the unlicensed frequencies used by RF mesh networks. Despite the negatives, the fact that General Electric is offering a WiMax solution for grid optimization makes it all the more intriguing. Startups such as Grid Net are betting on WiMax.

There are more wireless options including WiFi, optical laser, satellite, and numerous radio bands. There are many wireline options including: power line carrier, broadband over power line (BPL), fiber optics, and DSL (phone line).

Every utility has to deal with a mix of urban and rural deployments. Most have some legacy deployments and other internal technical constraints. Most utilities will end up using a mix of technologies including both wired and wireless. We will look at the wired options in a future post. Stay tuned.

btw, Jim is traveling through Friday, so this week's posts may not come out on the usual daily schedule.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Most summer weekday afternoons present the utility with its highest electrical demand of the day. This period is known as "peak" demand. Making sure enough power is available at peak is one of the utility's most important and most difficult tasks. The exact demand during peak period is not the same every day. Super peak refers to the highest part of peak electrical demand. When energy demand is very high (e.g. hot summer afternoons) or when energy supply is very low (e.g. a baseload power plant goes offline), a utility experiences super peak. Super peak usually comes from combination of things happening at the same time.

• Increase in demand

  • Extreme temperature
  • Day and time of week
  • Industrial process load being brought on

• Decrease in supply

  • Generation capacity
  • Outage at power plant
  • Availability of market-rate electricity
  • Availability of transmission capacity

One example of a demand response program to deal with super peak is the Kilowatcher Program at Colorado Springs Utilities. All utilities have programs to deal with super peak. They can contract for power on the open market, they can call on customers to reduce demand, or they can fire up peaking power plants. A lot of effort goes into managing super peaks. Nobody wants a brownout where electrical demand exceeds the supply, line voltage drops, and electrical devices burn out. Generating and buying power at peak periods is expensive. Anything a utility can do to reduce peak periods in general, and super peaks in particular, is money in the bank.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Stage one of smart grid, smart home was built on a foundation of smart meters and two-way communications (AMI-advanced metering infrastructure). On top of AMI we added demand-response (DR). This allowed your utility to control some part of your electrical demand. We'll refer to stage one as “DR-lite,” because there is much more to come. In stage two, we'll add more options for DR. We will also give you a birds-eye view of grid optimization (GO). Optimization was going on from the start, but you did not know about it, and didn't really care. In stage two, we'll also start to integrate a lot more renewable but intermittent energy sources to the grid.

As we head into stage two, let say you like what was happening in stage one: (check all that apply)

• Reducing your carbon footprint.
  
• Lowering your impact on the environment.
• Lowering your monthly utility bill.
• Getting an annual check from your utility for lets say $100.

After rolling out a million smart meters and 50,000 smart thermostats, a few years has gone by and your utility has its enterprise (software) applications in place to control all these devices. Your utility is ready for stage two and offers a you a variety of devices that can be used to reduce your electrical demand. You quickly sign up, because you are keen on the idea of (see checklist above). Plus you would not be reading this if you were not an early adopter.

Here's what the utility offers:

• In-home display with readouts on your energy use
• Web interface to see the same information on your PC and smart phone
• Smart plugs that go between your larger appliances and the outlet
• A $500 rebate on smart appliances such as a fridge, dishwasher, and dryer.

Being an environmentalist or a cheapskate or both, you sign up for the whole package. And since you last replaced your dishwasher in 1990, you go out and buy the new high-efficiency model from Whirlpool. The dishwasher connects wirelessly with your HAN (home area network) and therefore can send and receive signals to the utility. Your utility sends out an installer to make sure everything gets installed correctly. Remember, the telcos had to do truck-rolls for the first stage of broadband deployment – eventually they figured out how to make it easy enough for homeowners to self-install. The smart grid will follow a similar path. 

At your request, the home display gets mounted on the kitchen wall where your phone used to be, back when you still had a landline. The display does not need the phone line, but it covers up the scar left from the old wall jack. Your installer inserts a chip-card into your dishwasher authorizing it to communicate with the utility. And one of the smart plugs gets inserted between your old electric dryer and its 240V outlet. The plug automatically connects to your home network, just like the new dishwasher. The installer also leaves behind a handout giving you the web address for a customized energy portal where you can monitor and control your electrical usage from any PC or smart phone.

On the dog days of summer and the icy days of winter, you are more than a customer. You have become a valued partner for your utility as it attempts to reduce both its costs and its carbon emissions. On that hot summer afternoon during a “super peak” when your utility is running out of megawatts, it sends the command to 1) raise your thermostat by two degrees, 2) delay your dryer for a couple of hours, and 3) put the dishwasher on hold. And you don't mind because 1) you barely notice the changes, 2) you are being paid for your flexibility, and 3) and on the rare occasion when these subtle changes do matter, you can push a button to override the utility's DR request. If your grandmother is at the house and you are away, you'll be able to push the override button from the convenience of your iPhone. Back at the utility, they just saved a bundle by not needing to buy super peak power on the spot market.

Our scenario focuses on the smart home, but in stages one and two, demand response may see its biggest payoff with commercial and industrial customers. Even though the long-term energy savings might be split equally between residential and commercial demand. It will be easier to implement demand response for a few hundred thousand commercial customers than it will be to implement it for a hundred million residential customers. 

Time goes by and demand response is providing your utility with better load control each year. At the same time, another revolution is sweeping across the grid. During stage one, while your utility was installing two-way meters, it was also installing sensors, relays, voltage regulators, circuit breakers, and other grid devices. And each one of these is connected to the utility's digital network. As the utility's enterprise software capabilities have matured, its operations staff now has a real-time view of where the power is flowing, at what voltages, where the bottlenecks are building, and which lines are getting overheated (and therefore in danger of sagging into nearby trees). They know where power is needed and where an excess is being generated from rooftop solar systems. This so called “grid optimization” lets your utility:

• respond to peak demand loads more efficiently
• identify outages more precisely
• restore power more quickly
• switch generation to cost-effective and low-carbon fuels
  
• re-route energy to avoid bottlenecks and unnecessary strain
• eliminate “truck-rolls” with automated disconnects, reconnects, and troubleshooting

This part of the revolution will lack fanfare, but it will make the grid more responsive and more manageable. It represents a big change from the past. On the legacy grid, a bird flying around town might have had a better idea about what was going on inside the grid than your utility. In Boulder Colorado, Xcel Energy was so bullish on the benefits of grid optimization, that it built the business case for the smart grid investments primarily on the economics of optimization (rather than demand-response). In contrast to demand-response which helps utilities get through peak periods, grid optimization benefits accrue 24 hours/day, 7/days week, 365/days per year. At scale, the resulting savings will be in the tens of billions of dollars over the life of the equipment. To the extent that blackouts and brownouts can be avoided the long term savings are greater. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimates power outages and disruptions cost the US more than $100B per year... that's PER YEAR.

During the several years of stage one, renewable energy generation was also growing rapidly. New wind farms were put into place, concentrating solar thermal plants are operating in sunny regions. More important, millions of homes have rooftop solar PV and thousands of commercial buildings and warehouses have rooftop wind and solar. When wind and solar represented a few percent of total generation, it was relatively easy for your utility to use this capacity whenever it became available. But with penetration pushing past 10% and needing to get to 20%, the legacy grid had no way to handle these large intermittent sources. Utilities had no way to know how much power these distributed sources were generating and little idea whether they were ramping up or down.

The smart grid's ability to let utilities absorb and use low-carbon renewable sources of power is the other big success in stage two. Only time will tell how soon this will become a major factor. A great deal depends on the declining cost curves for solar and its overall economics. But without a smart grid in place, we will be forever stuck with a low level of renewable integration. Geeks want to know a lot more about this, but most people won't care if they see their costs going down AND their electrical carbon footprint shrinking. Stage three is still a few more years down the road past stage two, but we can't wait so we'll talk about it next week. Stay tuned.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

So what turns a house connected to the smart grid into a smart house? It depends on the situation, but let's go through one scenario that will be common in the future. We'll cover the basics today and add more details with a post tomorrow.

The first stage of smart grid deployment arrives when the utility installs a “smart meter” on your house. Your new meter will establish two-way communication with the utility. Depending on the technology (and this is a big decision point for utilities), meter communication could be over the power line itself, via cell phone network, via radio-frequency network, or several other alternatives. The choice matters greatly to the utility, but not much to you. The main point is that the utility will now be able to “read” your meter on a continuous basis. Instead of just monthly, data can flow hourly, daily, or on whatever schedule the utility determines. The meter will also log your electrical use by the hour of the day and the day of the week. That's because in the future, just like riding public transport, the rate you pay for a kilowatt-hour will vary depending whether use it at peak or off-peak periods.

This gigantic step toward the smart grid (your shiny new smart meter) might come and go with very little fanfare. Your bill will still come monthly and your electrical service will be the same as before. Back at the utility however, good things are happening. They will know within seconds if you have a power outage. They will also know the extent of the outage and very likely what caused it. With the other sensors and controls the utility has installed on the grid, they may not even need a truck-roll to restore your power. Smart meters, when deployed in mass and in parallel with sensors on the electric distribution network, provide the utility with a capability called grid optimization. Instead of flying blind, they will know where the power is, what the voltages are, where bottlenecks are building, and where faults are happening. Over time, this will be revolutionary for the utility... but let's get back to our smart house.

The second gigantic step toward becoming a smart home is when your utility offers, and you opt-in, to a demand-response program. Hopefully they won't call it by that name. These programs will be infinitely more marketable if they have a catchy name like eco-power-saver or super-moms-home-efficiency-program or sooper-smart-consumers or you get the idea. Marketers will do their thing. At this stage, the utility will send someone out to your home to install one or more devices. The major reason people will join these programs is because utilities will open their pocketbooks and pay you to join. They will give you a rebate, a monthly discount, or some other incentive. That's right, they will pay YOU.

At this stage, the utility might offer you several devices ranging from thermostats, to energy monitoring displays, to switches for your electric dryer or dishwasher. To keep it simple, let's say your utility only installs one device, a “smart thermostat.” Like your new meter, your new thermostat will have two-way digital communication built-in. It will send and receive signals from the utility. That means your utility will be able to “read” your thermostat. Those signals might use the same communications technology as the meter uses, or the signal might take a different path. You won't really care unless you are a geek who needs to know “how things work.” The technical term “demand-response” is appropriate because your new thermostat gives the utility a tiny bit of control over your electrical demand. On hot summer afternoons, when electrical loads are peaking and the utility needs to fire-up expensive natural gas turbines, or buy extra power on the spot market, they will instead, send a signal to your thermostat to turn it up a couple of degrees.

The utility did the heavy-lifting when it installed the smart meter and its network (AMI for advanced metering infrastructure) and the thermostat and its network link (HAN for home area network). With a robust network in place (robust is the operative term), the data flow is relatively simple as illustrated in the diagram. At 2PM on that hot summer weekday when the utility is “running out of power” they'll send a signal to their smart homes requesting a 2-degree reduction in cooling. At 6PM when other loads are dropping, they will send another signal to restore your thermostat to its initial setting.

By tweaking your thermostat, your AC unit will skip a few cycles and your house will slowly warm up to the new set point of 78º. The net effect to you will be negligible. The net effect for the utility will be huge when they can make these slight reductions in demand to millions of homes. When demand-response is implemented at scale, whole new power plants won't be needed and that will bring reductions in air pollution and carbon emissions. The real selling point: will save money for both you and your utility. That's two giant steps for the smart grid. But there's much more of course. So stay tuned.

 

For more information on the chart, see Smart grid ecosystem, part 4. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Research firm Parks Associates estimates that 8.3M smart meters have been installed in US homes, about 6% penetration. That's almost double the penetration of one year ago. Smart meters are capable of two-way digital communications. They are crucial because they provide the foundation for widespread deployment of the smart grid. Parks' projects rapid growth with 13.6M smart meters by 2010 and 33M by 2011. This hypergrowth explains the large number of smart-grid startups and the recent entrance of the tech giants. To give you an idea of the momentum behind smart grid deployment, we profile some of major projects in the US. We start with the first proof-of-concept project on the Olympic Peninsula. Some of these projects are full end-to-end smart grid deployments, others are smart meter projects which incorporate demand-response functionality for reducing peak electrical demand.

Olympic Peninsula GridWise – In 2007-08, Pacific Northwestern National Lab (PNNL) conducted a one-year demonstration project with many partners including IBM and Whirlpool. This was one of the earliest field experiments in the US. It included dynamic pricing, real-time EMS, and homeowner tools for managing energy consumption. Consumers responded by adjusting their behavior to save an average of 10% on their electric bills. Peak demand went down by 15% on average for the year and in some cases went down by 50%. The overall energy savings was 20%. If scaled up nationally, the results would provide savings of $70B over 20 years, putting the $4.5B federal stimulus investment into perspective.

Pecan Street Project - The municipal utility Austin Energy (Texas) already has version 1.0 of its smart grid up and running. Key components include 400K smart meters, 86K smart thermostats, and more than 2K grid sensors. Version 2.0, dubbed the Pecan Street Project will integrate renewable power generation, energy storage systems, smart appliances, electric vehicle charging, and home portals. Austin Energy is opening up its grid for entrepreneurs and researchers. The city of Austin Texas will be the laboratory. They have attracted a long list of partners including Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale, GE, GridPoint, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and SEMATECH.

Boulder Smart Grid City – Xcel's Boulder Colorado project is one of the most advanced in the country. The grid overlay is a dedicated fiber optic network. Xcel is using the project as a test bed for many new technologies. Xcel estimates that it will cost $100 million to connect 45,000 customers to its Boulder network. Xcel has an extensive list of partners who also invested in the project. These include Accenture (project management), Current (monitoring), GridPoint (software platform), OSIsoft (data and asset management), SEL (sensing and control), SmartSynch (smart meters), and Ventyx (utility application software). See our previous post on Smart Grid City.

PG&E Smart Meter Program - The California utility is deploying 5.3M smart electric meters by mid-2012. This is the foundation for their smart grid project. PG&E uses programmable solid-state meter technology with secure wireless communication between the meter and the utility. Meters are provided by GE and Landis+Gyr. P&E's communication partner is Silver Spring Networks. The utility used Aclara for communications in the first phase of meter deployment. They will use ZigBee to communicate between smart meters and in-home devices. The estimated cost for up to 10 million gas and electric meters is $2.2B.

Energy Smart Miami – A Florida Power & Light (FPL) collaboration with General Electric and Silver Spring Networks. It is essentially a smart metering program covering 1 million homes in Miami-Dade County. The estimated cost in Miami-Dade is $200M or about $200 per home. The project extends into additional FPL service territory covering 3M homes. The estimated cost is $500M or about $167 per home. FPL is looking for Federal stimulus funding to cover about half of its costs.

Duke Energy – Recently signed a three-year partnership with tech giant Cisco to develop a smart grid for its 11 million customers. Cisco will help Duke evaluate all communications hardware and software. Cisco will also oversee installation and testing of communication-related grid components. Cisco was a surprise pick over Silver Spring Networks. It is unclear whether Silver Spring will eventually be brought into the project. The two companies have cooperated in the past, but with Cisco's ambitious plans, they could become head-on rivals.

Baltimore Smart Grid - Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) just announced (July-09) a major project to include installation of 2 million smart electric and gas meters. BGE estimates it could save customers in excess of $2.6 billion over the life of the project. Their pilot study in 2008 demonstrated that using smart meters and variable pricing, customers reduced their peak demand by 33%. BGE is seeking federal stimulus dollars for the next phase of the project. The utility needs state approval for its variable pricing program which offers customer rebates for reducing power consumption during peak periods. In the pilot program, customers saved more than $100 on average and gave the program a 93% satisfaction rating.

In upcoming posts, we'll look at the tech partnerships that are forming to serve this rapidly expanding market. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In this installment of our smart grid ecosystem, we begin our look at the startups and focused players. In part 5, we placed the giant tech companies into the ecosystem. That was the easy part. The giants cover a lot of territory, there are few of them, and they have well known competencies. The startups, by contrast, are all over the map. True to their DNA, entrepreneurs come up with new ideas and run with them. They expand as niches open up, as capital and talent allow. They don't follow a predictable pattern. Nor do they acknowledge established industry and sector boundaries. Entrepreneurs are boundary spanners. So consider the chart below a work-in progress, a rough approximation. There are more exceptions than rules.

If you are not familiar with the smart grid, we suggest that you review our July 2 post illustrating the major companies competing for space in the smart grid.

 

We'll discuss this chart in several more posts coming up. We will take a look at the partnerships that are forming (and in some cases de-forming). Meanwhile, if you have suggestions for clarifying our model, please let us know. We'd love to simplify it, but then again, that's not necessarily how innovation drives new technology and new markets.

See related posts on the smart grid. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

On Sunday, I came back from my morning run and was greeted by our dog Rufus. On walks together, we go around the east side of the yard so I can read our electric meter. Rufus usually stops at the meter and waits for me. Weird I know, but I enjoy reading my meter because it has been spinning backwards all summer long (we have roof-top solar). Right now, we are about 1000kWh below our February reading. In Colorado, we will use up that surplus as the days get shorter and the snow starts flying in November.

Anyway, the meter reading started me thinking about Rufus' carbon footprint. I figured it could not amount to much because he walks a lot and he never drives except for rare trips to the vet. He eats only two meals a day and never leaves the lights on. He makes minimal use of major appliances such as the refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer. Being the data hound that I am, I decided to research his carbon pawprint. This was more challenging than I expected. In fact I did not find the detailed data I wanted, but I did find an estimate for dogs and cats:

An average dog causes around 1.75 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. A cat causes around 0.50 tons. Rufus's size is smaller than most dogs and larger than most cats. My guess is that Rufus' carbon pawprint is about one ton per year. That includes the CO2 emissions to produce his food, its packaging, litter bags, occasional transport to the vet, his toys, etc. From what I learned, the largest CO2 contributor for dogs and cats may be from the meat in their foods.

Considering that the average American is responsible for about 29 tons of CO2 per year, 1 ton seems reasonable (3.5% of a person). However, considering that the average person in Malawi (Africa) is responsible for a scant 0.7 tons of carbon, Rufus is living large. Rufus is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. His ancestors were bred for the kings and queens of England so I guess he's used to living the high life. Since my own footprint is about 17 tons, I've decided to keep working on my own footprint and let Rufus enjoy himself. --JCB

btw, If you are interested in reducing your pet's already small carbon footprint, take a look at these articles from the Santa Barbara Independent and GreenDivaMom.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

We continue our discussion from yesterday. If you are not familiar with the smart grid, we suggest that you review our July 2 post illustrating many of  the companies competing for space in the smart grid. Realize that this discussion provides an overview to get you oriented. We'll cite the 80-20 here with a disclaimer that we are laying out the high-level view. At this point of development, everything is in flux. There are more exceptions than rules.

The companies placed on the first chart below are primarily from the technology space. The companies placed on the second chart are primarily from the power systems/industrial space. The latter group includes industrial giants such as GE, ABB, Areva, and Siemens. These Goliath's are major suppliers to the legacy grid. Each of them manufactures and markets a full range of new and legacy technologies for the utility industry. They know more about the legacy grid than anyone on the planet, but their expertise thins when it comes to IP networks, scalable real-time databases, and enterprise-class software. The tech and industrial giants need each other. 

Across the board, those companies that already compete in their core business will continue to do so on the smart grid. This is a land-grab and the giants play the game better than anyone. Natural competitors include:

• Google vs. Microsoft (software giants)
• GE vs. Siemens (industrial giants)
• Verizon vs. AT&T (wireless giants)
• Cisco vs. small innovators such Silver Spring (e.g. Goliath vs. David)
• IBM vs. Oracle (Oracle has announced it will go end-to-end)

At the other end of the spectrum are the natural collaborators. These are companies that come to the smart grid with complementary strengths. They may come from different industries or from different technologies. Prominent examples include:

• IBM & GE
• Intel and IBM or Microsoft
• Intel and the industrial giants
• Cisco & IBM & GE (three Goliath's that could work together)
• Google & Oracle & GE (possibly three more)
  

In between are dozens of companies with overlapping competences. Examples of partially competitive overlaps include:

• IBM & Google or Microsoft
• IBM & Oracle
• Cisco & Silver Spring or Trilliant

 

 This market is moving very fast. All the big players want to expand their reach. For example:

• Cicso would like to cover all the major networking components by itself
• Oracle has announced an end-to-end solution, though it's not clear if anybody believes them
• IBM wants to get into industrial solutions such as grid-connected storage smack in the middle of GE and Siemens turf
• Some of the tech giants want to extend into the industrial space and vice versa.
  
• Metering/AMI players want to extend through the networking space and into utility enterprise apps.

When you add 100 small innovators into the competitive mix, it leaves utility executives scratching their heads about which technologies and companies will survive the next five years. When in doubt (and they are), the utilities will move very slowly. That pacing difference will set up some interesting dynamics for the tech giants. Next week, we'll look at the smaller innovators. Stay tuned. 

See related posts on the smart grid. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Continuing from part 3, giant companies (both tech and industrial) are jumping into the smart grid business. Since the opportunity is too big for any one company, an ecosystem of partners and competitors is starting to emerge. Battle lines are drawn clearly in some areas and not at all in others. To convey the size and scope of the opportunity, we have sketched out the landscape in the chart below. Sketch is the operative word, because the smart grid has too many dimensions to capture on one chart. We'll start with this chart and develop it further in upcoming posts.

The upper half of the chart represents the software applications of the smart grid. The lower half represents the facilities and networks that transport data about electrical supply and demand. The left side of the chart represents the domain of the utilities and generators, whereas the right side represents the residential and commercial customers. This gives us four quadrants labeled Enterprise Apps (software to run the utilities), EMS (energy management systems for use by customers), the HAN (the home area network, usually wireless, to connect all the devices in a home or building), and "Grid overlay" (the new digital network that will overlay the legacy grid for monitoring and control).

If you are following the smart grid, take a close look at this chart. It's not complete. It does not show all the technical layers. Nor does it show the legacy grid. But it gives you a high-level view of all the major elements. We'll use this chart to stake out the turf for the companies involved.

If you read clockwise from the upper left, we can walk through a flow of requests and responses and monitoring and control. For example, the utilities use Enterprise Apps such as Demand Response systems to balance electrical supply and demand. At 1 PM on a hot summer day, they know the peak load is coming. They send out a signal to cut back on non-essential power use. Back at the customer's site, the consumer (or facilities manager) uses their own EMS (Energy Management System) to set their preferences, possibly overriding the utilities' request. The actual communication between applications takes place down at the network level (lower half of chart). In the consumer's home or building, devices are connected to one another through the HAN (home area network) to coordinate signaling. For example the smart thermostat might let the utility turn down the air conditioning because no one is home, but the smart fridge might override the smae signal because it's full of fresh cold beer from the local microbrew. Connected to the house or building, the AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) picks up these signals and monitors the flow of electricity as it's being adjusted by the above systems. The AMI is logging real-time power consumption so that prices can be set higher during peak periods when the utilities' generation costs are higher. The network signals continue through the Grid overlay in a clockwise direction feeding back to the utilities' Enterprise Apps including billing which is part of BOSS. They also feed back into Demand Response thus showing the utilities how much power is needed from which generators and which transmission lines so the power can flow where it's needed.

In tomorrow's post, we will overlay the tech giants. You'll see they are literally all over the map. Soon after, we will add in the smaller, more focused players. Stay tuned.

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yes. Nuclear is the big issue that divides proponents of climate mitigation. Supporting a low-carbon future, nuclear plants offer baseload power with very low operational emissions. Baseload plants are crucial because they provide power around the clock 24x7, i.e. when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. Coal, hydro, and geothermal are the other types of baseload plants. Most hydro is already developed, geothermal will help but not on a large enough scale, and coal is a carbon nightmare. As I have studied the nuclear question my position has shifted more than once. There is no good answer but we can't rewind the clock.

One of the challenges in mitigating climate change is that "time is of the essence." CO2 stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Almost all of the CO2 we have emitted during industrial revolution is still in the atmosphere. Since annual emissions are still increasing, we can't wait another 20 years for future solutions such as “clean” coal, “low-carbon” biofuels, "large-scale" hydrogen fuel cells, and “baseload” wind and solar. We need to stop the increase of global CO2 emissions before 2020 and then reduce it by 50-85% below 2000 levels. The things we do in the next 10 years will have the greatest impact.

Nuclear is here now. It works and it is relatively safe. In fifty years of operation, no one has been killed by a nuclear power plant accident in the US. The damage at Three Mile Island was contained to the reactor itself. Chernobyl is not comparable since that plant lacked the basic safety features used everywhere outside Russia (their reactor was built inside the equivalent of a tin shed). The US already generates 20% of its electricity from nuclear, Japan generates 35%, and France generates 80%.

Solar and wind won't be capable of baseload operations until two key problems are solved. We need to implement the smart grid on a massive scale. For the first time, this will give utilities the ability to accurately monitor and manage customer electrical loads. We also need large-scale energy storage solutions such as flow batteries, fuel cells, and compressed air. This will buffer some of intermittency of wind and solar. Someday the combination of smart grid with large-scale storage will turn wind and solar into baseload power. Nuclear can get us to that “someday” without tipping the planet toward an ecological brown-out. Nuclear plants last 60 or more years. Uranium is not a renewable resource, it could run out in 100 years. Known reserves are enough to fuel a new generation of reactors that could be swapped out for renewables 50 years from now. 

Meanwhile the dark-side of nuclear continues to be storage. Yucca Mountain is dead in the water. By default, on-site “dry cask storage” is moving from an interim to a long-term solution. This method could last a century or more and eliminates the need to move radioactive waste across the highways. A reasonable objective is to use this century to build fuel-reprocessing facilities to minimize the volume of spent-fuel. In parallel, we can develop a permanent storage solution. With additional nuclear capabilities in place, we can retire coal plants and buy time for renewables.

Recent scientific evidence shows that our climate is changing faster than predicted. Since next generation of nuclear plants could take 10 years to come online, we need to get moving sooner than later. The faster we mitigate, the less chance our grandchildren will see a planetary ecological disaster. Since policy objectives include both energy security and carbon mitigation, moving nuclear forward with a few pilot projects gives us the option to build more nuclear in the future. In 2008, Japan opened 8 new nuclear plants. They are working on wind and solar too but they are moving on all low-carbon fronts. New reactor designs are safer and more efficient. Building the next generation of nuclear plants can give society a 50-year lead time to develop the technologies needed for a sustainable low-carbon future. We can't rewind the clock on the industrial revolution, but we can buy some time. Nuclear is not popular, it's not without problems, but it is a realistic part of the solution. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When I forget to bring my reusable bags to the grocery store (I'm still training myself), this is the inevitable question from the cashier. We have all heard it 1000 times: would you like paper or plastic (bags)? Maybe you always make the same choice or maybe you flip-flop. Environmentalists tend to hate plastic on the assumption that it's bad for the environment. Truth is, all bags are bad for the environment. So we're looking for which choice is less bad.

Paper bags (believe it or not) have higher carbon intensity than plastic bags, so using them increases your shopping footprint. Paper bags leave their black mark during pulp processing and manufacturing. They kill trees, use a lot of water, and pollute the air with nasty volatile sulfur compounds. Choose paper bags and you are supporting clear cutting and habitat destruction. We tend to think well of paper because unless we live next to a pulp mill, or the (formerly beautiful) forest, we don't see all the problems. The good news is that paper bags are biodegradable and have less impact during disposal. Reuse your paper bags at least once, then compost them at end-of-life. Recycling uses a lot of energy and chemicals so it's not benign. If you can't compost them, recycling (after reuse) is better than sending them to the landfill.

Plastic bags are made from oil. Need I say more? Plastic bags are not good for the environment or for energy security. But plastic has lower energy requirements than paper and a lower carbon footprint. Surprisingly, production of plastic bags creates less pollution as well. Plastic bags leave their black mark in the disposal phase. Reuse your plastic bags at least once. Recycle them if possible. Realize that recycling plastic really means downcycling it into something less functional. There is not much else you can do once you've brought the plastic bag home from the store. Almost a trillion plastic bags go to landfills every year. We can do better than that.

Reusable bags are the only eco-friendly choice. It's no contest. Use any bag at least three or four times and your average “bag footprint” goes down with each use.

Me? I try to remember to bring my reusable bags. I keep them in my car. When I forget, I ask for plastic (if available) and make sure I reuse them at least once. They become trash bags, doggie bags, lunch bags, and a dozen other things. I need to get better at remembering my reusable bags, however, because I never seem to run low on plastic bags.

Bottom line: Don't sweat this one too much. Combine your errands and drive fewer miles or ride your bike when possible. Weatherstrip your windows and doors and adjust your thermostat. Those changes will have far greater impact on bringing down your carbon footprint. But it's true that small things add up. So don't forget your reusable bags. I'll try to remember too! --JCB

If you want details, Treehugger.com has an in-depth analysis.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Arizona Public Service (APS) is the largest electric utility in Arizona, serving nearly a million customers. APS has launched a pilot project to install, own, operate, and maintain solar panels on customer rooftops at no upfront cost to qualified customers.

• Eligible customers must be served by a specific part of the APS distribution system (the Sandvig 4 feeder).

• The customer's home must meet technical requirements such as roof direction, building age, and structural integrity.

• An on-site assessment of the home will verify engineering and eligibility requirements.

• Customers will sign an easement, allowing APS access for installation and maintenance.

• After installation is complete the customer will be eligible to receive a reduced rate for the power generated on their rooftop.

Community Power programs are based on the same concept as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) where an independent company “rents” rooftop space on commercial buildings, installs a renewable energy system, and sells the power back to the building owner (see Wiki). ESCOs typically split their profits with the building owner through revenue sharing agreements. Due to the capital-intensive nature of renewable energy investments, this approach to energy service provisioning will play a larger role in our future.

Even as renewable energy costs decline, new systems still require a large upfront investment. Let's face it, most people don't have the needed $10,000-$15,000 to prepay their electric bill for 30 years. Credit markets remain tight and few loans are available. The homeowners who do have cash might not have the optimal south-facing pitch.

Projects such as APS' will put distributed solar on the best rooftops in the most grid-accessible parts of the community. This helps utilities meet regulatory mandates. For example, Arizona’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires that 30 percent of its renewable energy be generated from distributed sources. Utilities are well positioned to make these long-term investments. Power plants, for example, can be amortized over 50 years. Plus utilities have access to the necessary capital and expertise. These projects won't solve all our problems, but they provide invaluable support for developing the renewable energy industry and educating consumers. The costs are reasonable when spread across the rate base. It's hard to see a downside for Community Solar projects. They are win-win-win: good for the homeowner, good for the community, good for the environment.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Continuing our discussion of the smart grid ecosystem...

The smart grid has been called the “energy Internet” so it makes sense that giant tech companies are rolling out products and services. The enterprise IT companies, in particular, are ramping up their investments. IBM has been focused on utilities consulting and software for several years. They offer enterprise software with extensive systems integration and IT support. Some of IBMs solutions are purpose-built for the grid, but many are just reconfigured from its extensive portfolio of enterprise applications. You can count on Cisco to get involved in every application of IP networks. The smart grid is no exception. Cisco will work with utilities on home area networking (HAN), backhaul services, network security, and network operations. Microsoft is naturally focused on software. A late mover, it recently jumped in with a software suite now in field trials. Coming out of the web, Google is experimenting with a web-based solution which it offers free to partner utilities (and their customers). Google sees a major play in all the data that will be generated. As in their primary market, they will go head-to-head with Microsoft, courting utilities and their customers. Oracle is focused on utility data management and operations integration around their database, middleware, applications and back-end technology infrastructure. Most of the majors are also making investments in the smaller players. And last to mention here, Intel is developing microprocessors for embedding into transmission and distribution equipment.

The other tech giants are not (yet) as deeply involved but they won't sit on the sidelines and let this market develop for long. Consumer electronics (CE) competencies revolve around the digital home and creating stylish, easy to use products. The growth of the smart grid will depend heavily on consumer acceptance and the CE companies know the consumer better than anyone. With the smart grid's requirement for digital networks spanning the continent, telecoms giants such as Verizon are offering 3G wireless networking services to the utilities so they don't have to build their own networks from the ground up. They will also offer consumer solutions based on their cell-phone platforms. In Boulder's smart city, Xcel built out it's own fiber optic network, but that won't be the norm.

 

Each one of these companies brings its core competencies into the utility industry. Each one is building large partner networks. This opportunity wide and deep, no single company can provide all the solutions. The utilities industry is America's largest, almost double the size of the telecoms industry. Electric utilities control more than $600B in assets with $260B in annual revenue. There are more than a billion meters worldwide with more than 100M in the US. Upgrading so many meters, homes, and network assets is an opportunity on the scale of the internet. Next week, we'll discuss some of the smaller, innovative players in this space.

 

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The world is moving from a fossil-fuel economy to an electricity economy based on nuclear and renewables (see previous post). There are  major obstacles to overcome including rapid technology change, a fragmented regulatory landscape, and the conservative nature of utilities. The grid will collect information about energy use and display it for the consumer and their utilities. Consumers win if they use the information to save money. Utilities win by providing opt-in incentives for shaving peak loads and avoiding the cost of new power plants at $500M to $1B each, with nuclear at $10B. The home energy management system (EMS) might appear to take center stage, but it's just one element in the digital home (see Smart Grid News). You can view the full-size map.

If the smart grid represents the future of electricity, then it also represents the future of home technology. Consider that the digital home already includes a combination of broadband, PCs and Macs, iPods, smart cell phones, digital televisions, media centers, game players, music controllers, and more. Consider that these devices are becoming more interoperable year-by-year. Smart phones are becoming as capable as PCs, iPods run home stereo systems, digital televisions record and playback TV on demand with recordings controlled from PCs or smart phones, media controllers connect to computer downloads, etc. Yet the potential of all these devices has not been realized. Synergies have not been achieved.

Both the digital home and smart grid will be based on open standards which embrace and extend those that power the web today. In a mere 15 years, the web has completely redefined the global landscape of communication and business technology. In the next 15 years, the smart grid (in concert with the digital home) will again redefine our technology experience. This won't be restricted to residential digital homes, it will grow even faster in commercial buildings. Together they use almost 70% of US electricity. The focus in commercial buildings will center on building automation and energy management.

With the emphasis on digital networking and standardized technologies, tech giants are being sucked in like steel to a magnet. The grid is pulling in top companies from information technology, consumer electronics, telecoms, and the web. Not to mention the industrial giants such as GE and Seimens. In upcoming posts we will profile the giants and work our way down to the focused players who are making the needed technological breakthroughs. I don't believe this is hype. Capital is pouring in, standards are being set, and infrastructure is being deployed. I've written about the city-wide project in Boulder, CO. More projects are starting up every quarter. Sure, it's going to take longer than everyone wants. But look at what happened in 15 years of commercial internet development. Tech change builds on itself and accelerates over time. Therefore the 15 years of internet-time could easily shrink to 10 years. And these next 5 years will set the stage for the next 50. Fasten your tech seat-belts. We live in interesting times.

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a big believer in continuous quality improvement. Keep refining your business processes and they become effective and efficient. One of my projects at home is getting to net zero energy (NZE). I'm always looking for places to save a few watts. My low-voltage yard lights have been bugging me because the photocell was turning them on too early in the evening and turning them off too late in the morning. I was wasting electricity. I looked into it and found that the location of the photocell had become heavily shaded by mature trees and bushes. It was no longer getting a clear reading of ambient light. In addition to staying on too long, the other problem is that the low-voltage transformer draws 16 watts on a 24x7 basis. My solution was to add a digital timer to turn the transformer on at dusk and then turn it off at 1AM. As a watt-pincher, I decided I did not really need dusk-to-dawn lighting. The timer automatically calculates the time for dusk, correcting for seasonal variation and daylight savings. With a 1AM shutoff, the transformer is on for an average of six hours per day. After making the change, I did a quick calculation of the savings. I was stunned. Eliminating the transformer load for 18 hours/day saves 105kWh per year (the digital timer draws a negligable amount). Shortening my lighting time from an average of 14 hours/night to 6 hours, saves 385kWh. These add to 490kWh. That's as much electricity as used by a refrigerator! Put in the context of my NZE project, this turned out to be a high-impact project. It represents about one-third of the power we had been drawing from the grid (the rest of our power comes from rooftop solar PV). I spent less than an hour setting this up and used a timer I already owned. There were no capital costs, just a little time and attention to detail. Plus the willingness to question a long-standing habit. What took me so long to make the change? This is where the true value of data monitoring comes in. Had I known how much power that circuit was drawing, I would have made the change ten years ago. The smart grid can't come soon enough! --JCB

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I was surprised about the recent increase in the number of  “climate skeptic” editorials. OpEds seem to be appearing daily in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and others. Then it dawned on me. The US cap-and-trade bill passed through the House and is on its way to the Senate. This means the US is on the brink of making a strategic change designed to reduce our national addiction to fossil fuels. Change always scares the status-quo. The “denier” media campaign will last as long as there is any chance of defeating the bill in the Senate. From what I've read of the new op-eds, most of the arguments have been made before and thoroughly discredited by science. It was reported last week in the UK that Exxon has continued their funding of climate skeptic “research institutes” despite saying they would stop. Another tactic makes the argument that former many “believers “ (political and scientific) are changing their minds about climate change. (see “Climate Change Climate Change”). I had not heard this one, so I asked a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research if the the article was accurate in saying that there was a groundswell of support for rethinking the causes of climate change. This is what he had to say:

“There is not, as far as I am aware, any shift in scientific opinion.  If anything, recent surveys indicate a growing acceptance among climate scientists that a substantial portion of climate change is anthropogenic. As a scientific community, in general I would say that we are past the question of IF and have moved on to working on the problem of HOW MUCH (in a probabilistic sense), where the biggest impacts will be, and whether or not less understood aspects could amplify or mitigate climate change as the Earth responds to the changing climate. For example, how will the global carbon cycle and therefore the atmospheric CO2 burden change? And specifically in my research, how will the vast amounts of carbon stored in permafrost respond as permafrost thaws?” --Dr. David Lawrence, Project Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Unfortunately, some people will not accept the best scientific evidence available. It's true that we can't know for certain that climate science is 100% accurate. But that's always the case when predicting the future. Most business executives base their business decisions on the best data available, not on the minority view. From what I can tell, what's actually happening around the world is that we've reached the point where difficult political decisions are being made. And this has forced a few politicians (and their science advisers) to back away from their previous commitments to GHG reduction. In the coming months, we can expect the deniers to fight with everything they have to make sure we don't change the status quo. This is politics not science.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a big fan of appropriate technology. In May, I switched my cell phone service to AT&T just so I could get an iPhone. In less than two months, it's become an indispensable part of everyday life. I knew I would like the device. It's very easy to use. I expected to be more productive given the wealth of applications. My biggest surprise is that the iPhone is on the way to replacing so many other devices. Here's my list:

• Watch/time/compass/altitude functions (replaces a $400 Suunto Wristtop Computer, AKA my watch)
• GPS for tracking workouts (replaces my $200 Garmin Forerunner that needed a factory repair)
• GPS for the car (replaces a $150 Garmin Nuvi I was planning to buy)
• City maps (replaces paper in most cases, and my $100 Garmin Mapsource City Navigator software)
• Email, web, business news, and “cloud” services (replaces a $500 NetBook I was planning to buy)
• Business news reader (replaces paper subscriptions to WSJ, NYT, and the Economist)
• Voice recorder for notes and interviews (replaces a $50 dedicated device)
• Music, podcasts, audio books (replaces need for a second iPod)
• Remote control for iTunes broadcast through my PC (replaces a $50 dedicated controller)
• Photos/slideshows (replaces need to make photo prints to show friends and family)
• Camera/videocam (replaces my camera for indoor and casual use)
  
• Language translation (potentially replaces dedicated device)
• Spelling/thesaurus (potentially replaces dedicated device)
• Calendar, address book, to-do list, calculator, scientific calculator, carbon calculator, and flashlight

In the 4Rs of “reduce, reuse, recycle, and replenish,” there is a reason REDUCE is listed first. When we reduce our use of a product, we save money and reduce our impact on the planet. In this case, my $300 phone is supplanting about $1,500 of specialized gear. It's also helping me be more productive and lightening my travel bags. The iPhone has significantly reduced my need to buy specialized electronic devices. This is a very good thing. Score one for appropriate technology. --JCB

*Does not replace my ruggedized GPS for backcountry travel
*Does not replace my waterproof camera for outdoor adventuring
*Does not include heart rate monitor (yet)

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

I have used gasoline lawn mowers all my life. I never liked them. They stink, they make too much noise, they are hard to start, and they pollute the air. But my lawn looks a lot nicer when it's cut regularly. Now that our household energy comes from the solar PV on our roof, my wife and I see electric power in a new light. When our 10-year old 3.5HP gas mower died this spring, we decided to look into battery-electric mowers. We researched the market and selected a model from Neuton Power in Vermont. I must say we love the new mower. It's quiet, it has an instant-start button, it produces zero particulates, and zero CO2 emissions. Now we can actually smell the fresh air while we are mowing the lawn. The mower's lead-acid battery is 36 volts and stores 360 watt-hours of energy. It works perfectly for our small (5,000SF) lawn. So far, our weekly re-charge consumes about 300 watts. That's 0.3 kWh or about three cents worth of power for most people. We use about 1.2kWh of electricity mowing four times a month. That amounts to less than 1% of our solar PV production during the mowing season. The mower cost about the same as I was planning to pay for a new gasoline model. Battery life can a problem for large lawns, but not for small ones like ours. So far I don't see any disadvantages. We love mowing with solar! --JCB

Mowers by the numbers (Daily Camera)

• 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend
• 5 percent of US air pollution comes from gas lawn mowers
• 80 pounds of CO2 is released each year by the average mower
• 800 million gallons of gas are consumed each year by lawn mowers

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

There is a lot of money pouring into development of the smart grid. The federal stimulus package set aside $4.5 billion for starters. That's not bad for seed money. Private money is also pouring in because investors believe this is the "next big thing." However the architecture develops, the smart grid will be tied together using a digital network running open standards. These standards will overlap heavily with those running the internet. All the tech giants are jumping into the smart grid at some level or another. It makes perfect sense. They have the capital and the digital pedigree. The scale and scope of this problem-set is so large that each one has a variety of partners. Partners range from big utilities, to tiny start-ups, to legacy grid suppliers. There are direct competitors in opposing camps (e.g. Microsoft vs. Google), as well as companies placing bets across competing technologies to increase their chances of winning market share (e.g. Cisco and IBM). It's reminiscent of the early days of the commercial internet when new giants were born and others consolidated their power. We're posting our "ecosystem map" for reference in an upcoming discussion. If you receive our blog posts by email, visit carbon-pros.com to view the full-size map. Stay tuned.

See related posts on the smart grid. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this week, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar said the federal government was fast-tracking the site-evaluation process for commercial solar power plants in six western states. His goal is to have a dozen plants under development over the next four years, eventually producing 3+ gigawatts. Salazar's aim is to make the permitting process more efficient for solar developers. Large-scale solar plants use one of two approaches. They can deploy thousands of ground-mounted photovoltaic panels to directly generate electricity. Or they can use concentrating mirrors to heat a working-fluid and create steam for a turbine (see previous blog post). Either way solar plants require a lot of land.*  The Fed's new stance is a major turnaround for federal land management. Under the Bush administration, more than 7,000 permits were approved for oil and gas developers. In contrast, no permits were granted for solar projects. With energy security and climate stabilization at stake, the time is right for opening up federal land to solar. Solar costs are decreasing, stimulus money is available, developers are ready to commit private funds, and utilities want to explore the future. With so many uncertainties ahead, one thing about the future is clear: Solar will play a much larger role in utility-scale generation.

*Space is not the limitation. The ASES compared the amount of land required to power the entire US with solar (about 13,000 square miles) with the amount of land required to power the entire US with coal. Using a fifty-year time frame, they found that almost twice as much land would be required for coal mining as for solar harvesting.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 02:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)