Google and Utilities Partner on Smart Metering Technology
Eight utilities in the U.S., Canada and India are teaming up with Google in smart meter projects that will enable customers to monitor their energy use online and better manage their power consumption.
NPR – Smart Meter Saves Big Bucks for Pa. Family
Energy Smart Miami: Smart Grid Initiative
In partnership with FPL Group, Cisco Systems, and start-up Silver Spring Networks, GE is preparing a major Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) initiative in Miami.
More information:
http://www.energysmartmiami.com/
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_042009d.html
Bolivia may become the Saudi Arabia of lithium
The 12-volt lead-acid battery used in traditional automotive applications has given way to higher energy density batteries as the automobile industry moves toward further electrification. The advent of hybrid electric vehicles in the past decade gave way to mass production of nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries in automobiles, which have twice the energy density of lead-acid batteries. Now the demand for long range electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the coming decade is giving way to mass production of lithium-ion batteries in automobiles with twice the energy density of Ni-MH batteries. The lithium ion battery offers 100-150 Watt hours per kilogram, Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) offers 65-70 Wh/kg, and lead-acid offers 30-40 Wh/kg.
NY Times reports that almost half of the world’s lithium, the mineral needed to power plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles, is found in Bolivia. Read more
PA PUC asks electric distribution companies for consumption projections and peak demand data
Pennsylvania Act 129, passed in late 2008, requires the state’s electric distribution companies (EDCs) to reduce electricity consumption by 1% by May 31, 2011, and by 3% by May 31, 2013. The Act also requires a 4.5% reduction in peak demand by May 31, 2013.
On January 15, 2009 the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) ordered EDC’s with more than 100,000 customers to submit consumption forecasts (i.e. baselines) against which the mandated 1% and 3% reductions in consumption will be measured. Each EDC must also submit hourly peak megawatt load (MW) data to the PUC, against which the 4.5% reduction in peak demand will be measured.
Large Scale Solar Resources and Stirling Engines in Southwestern U.S.
NREL develops and publishes maps of solar resource potential in the U.S. that estimate monthly average daily total solar insolation (kWh/m^2/day) falling on a device tracking the sun throughout the day. Basically this map is used to determine solar energy input available to a tracking solar dish concentrator with Stirling engine, a 2-axis tracking PV panel, or any other solar concentrator or panel that moves in sync with the sun to maximize solar insolation (i.e. solar radiation).
Stirling Energy Systems (SES) of Phoenix, AZ is currently developing two solar sites in California; SES has signed a pair of 20 year power purchasing agreements, one with Southern CA Edison (SCE), and one with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). The large scale solar technology deployments – “Solar One” and “Solar Two” – will have a combined generating capacity of 1,750 MW when fully complete. As a comparison the total generating capacity at Hoover Dam is 2,079 MW.
Under perfect sunny conditions, the solar concentrator dish with Stirling engine converts solar radiation into AC electricity more efficiently than the typical PV system. The solar-to-grid efficiency of a solar dish concentrator with Stirling engine is roughly 30% efficient under perfect sunny conditions. The solar-to-grid efficiency of the typical crystalline silicon PV system is about 10% efficient. However, during cloudy conditions a typical PV system can still convert indirect solar radiation from the sky into useful electricity, whereas the solar dish concentrator with Stirling engine shuts down completely when the sun is obscured by clouds.
Related Links
Western Area Power Administration: Solar generation system ready for production
Stirling Energy Systems: Solar Dish Stirling Engine Projects
Sandia National Lab: Sandia, Stirling Energy Systems set new world record for solar-to-grid conversion efficiency
PVWATTS version 1: Performance Calculator for Grid-Connected PV Systems
NREL: Direct Normal Solar Radiation Map (Two-Axis Tracking Concentrator)
SES: solar thermal technology with Stirling Engine
Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project
On December 18, 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission approved San Diego Gas and Electric Company’s application to construct the Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project. The $1.3 billion high voltage transmission line project is expected to run 150 miles between the CA Imperial Valley and San Diego with the capacity to transmit 1,000 megawatts of electric power by 2010.
The added transmission capacity is designed to ensure reliable electricity for residents of the San Diego area. The new transmission line is also supposed to support the development of renewable energy resources in the Imperial Valley of CA, which offers a high concentrated solar power resource potential just east of the San Diego area, in neighboring Imperial County. 
Stirling Energy Systems (SES) of Phoenix plans to construct thousands of mirrored solar power concentrators in the Imperial Valley to transmit power via the new Sunrise Powerlink. Phase 1 of the SES “Solar Two” solar power plant construction project, sited near El Centro, CA in the Imperial Valley (map below), will consist of 12,000 solar dish Stirling systems capable of generating 300 MW of electrical power. Phase 2 of the SES project will expand the number of solar dish Stirling systems to 36,000 units, capable of generating up to 900 MW of power, enough power to supply 500,000 homes. The power generated at this site will be sold in accordance with a 20-year power purchase agreement to San Diego Gas & Electric.
Cost estimates for the the first phase of solar dish Stirling systems construction (12,000 dishes, 300 MW capacity) range from $400 million to $1.8 billion. The prototype solar dish Stirling systems actually cost roughly $250,000 apiece, but bulk manufacturing and high volume construction is expected to significantly reduce that unit cost.
Opponents of the Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project say that “clean power” is a cover for SDG&E, a unit of San Sempra Energy, to use the new high-voltage transmission line to sell low-cost, polluting electricity from Mexico, where Sempra has invested heavily in natural gas and power-plant assets.
Related Links
San Diego Union Tribune: Massive solar plan is linked to SDG&E
PBS Now Documentary: Power Struggle
CPUC: SDG&E’s Proposed Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project
Stirling Energy Dish Plant Video
Alabama Power Co. offers $20 credit for residents to participate in demand response program
Alabama OKs utility option to cut air conditioner (AP) — Alabama Power Co. will give customers a way to save $20 annually by allowing the electric utility to cut off their home air conditioners for brief periods on the hottest weekdays of summer. The state’s largest electric utility will begin the program in the Birmingham area and plans to move it statewide by the end of 2010, company spokesman Pat Wylie said.
Innovative wind turbine prototype features aerospace technology
Wilbraham, MA-based FloDesign Wind Turbine, a spin-off from the aerospace and defense company, FloDesign, is building a full-scale prototype for demonstration, a 12ft diameter, 10KW turbine. According to MIT Technology Review, the company intends to build turbines as large as one megawatt, yet it is unclear how much it will cost to build and maintain the turbine before it goes to market.
FloDesign Wind Turbine has raised several million dollars of venture financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the massive U.S. private equity firm that Al Gore joined as a partner late last year.
According to FloDesign president Stanley Kowalski, the new technology has vast potential to bring wind power to areas where it is currently impractical.
More on FloDesign:
westernmassedc.com — FloDesign Has Innovation Down to a Science
BYD Adds Plug-In as China Gets Edge on Toyota, GM
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, started selling the world’s first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, gaining an edge on Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. in electric-powered vehicles.
The F3 DM can run for 100 kilometers (62 miles) using only batteries, Shenzhen-based BYD said in a statement today. Toyota plans to begin testing plug-ins, which can be recharged from household powerpoints, late next year, it said in August. GM aims to start selling the Volt plug-in in late 2010.
Play video of F3 DM car.
Rapid expansion of geothermal energy resources underway in Western U.S.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. electric power plants generated approximately 4 billion Megawatthours of electricity in 2006, and about 0.4% of that total came from geothermal power…
But that half percent is growing with large capital investments from investors such as Warren Buffett, Google, and others. A lot of the new investment is in the United States, where more than 80% of the country’s 3,000 geothermal megawatts lies in California.
In October, the Bureau of Land Management announced plans to offer more than 190 million acres of federal lands for geothermal leasing, potentially resulting in a tripling of U.S. geothermal power capacity by 2015.
Interior Department’s estimates of potential geothermal power production may actually be low, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In late September, the USGS released its first assessment of geothermal resources in more than 30 years. The study found that identified geothermal resources in the West could produce 9,057 MW of power, while another 30,033 MW of power could be generated from conventional geothermal resources that have not yet been discovered. The use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, which involves creating or expanding a geothermal resource through the high-pressure injection of a fluid, opens another 517,800 MW to potential development. For comparison, the U.S. currently has an installed geothermal power capacity of about 2,500 MW.
Raser Technologies, Inc. recently announced that it completed major construction of its Thermo geothermal plant, the first commercial geothermal power plant built in Utah in more than two decades. The 10-megawatt facility combined 50 modular, low-temperature PureCycle power units from UTC Power, United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), allowing power plant construction in just a few months.
Utah is also slated to host a new 100-megawatt geothermal power plant, to be located on lands owned by the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, and many other geothermal plants are springing up across the Western U.S.
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EIA: Retail Prices
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