GE Says Smart Grid Equal to 41GW of Power Plants

"We can probably improve the efficiency of the grid by 5 percent," said Steve Fludder, vice president of Ecomagination at GE, during an interview at the Cleantech Forum taking place this week in San Francisco. Five percent doesn't sound like much, but it translates to 41,000 megawatts of generating capacity, or 41 gigawatts."

Oregon's Executive Order 09-06 align with NXergy's mission

Governor Ted Kulongoski issued Executive Order 09-06 creating a new public-private advisory council to use Oregon's green advantage to maximize potential grants from the federal economic recovery package to create jobs immediately and for the long term. Six key criteria include:

[1] Immediate job creation for Oregonians;
[2] Use of Oregon companies & sourcing of local materials to keep stimulus funds in Oregon:
[3] Green jobs training that accompany projects;
[4] Promotion of Oregon's sustainability, renewable energy, carbon reduction, energy efficiency and green development goals;
[5] Innovative approaches in technology, partnership, process and life cycle optimization; and
[6] Potential to attract additional additional federal money through block grants and other sources.

Reviewing NXergy's focus reveals the alignment.

Smart Garage: Great information

Information on RMI's* "Project Get Ready" and the Smart Garage Charrette Report.

* Rocky Mountain Institute.

States defer to Obama on energy

A recent report (starting on page 20) outlines the current situation and states' perception of what is to be done in energy.

"It begins with Energy"

President Obama's speech, tonight.

"We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders – and I know you don’t either. It is time for America to lead again.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America."

Politics trumps logic

Unfortunately, the Senate (& compromise) versions got rid of the $2 billion to accelerate technologies and instead put in lots more $s (good news) for pet projects (bad news). It seems politicians think they can "pick winners" better than scientist, engineers and entrepreneurs. Can you say "ethanol"? When will it end?

Examples:
House version: "$2,000,000,000 shall be for expenses necessary for energy efficiency and renewable energy research, development, demonstration and deployment activities, to accelerate the development of technologies..." (i.e., open-ended as to what might actually work!)

Compromise version: "That $2,000,000,000 shall be available for grants for the manufacturing of advanced batteries and components..." (i.e., Closed-ended: "Do thus and so.")

The Grid: European / U.S. thinking

I attended a recent webinar (ocean grids around Europe) which discussed an approach to develop a "super-grid" offshore of Europe. Grand in its thinking, the impetus for this session was very pedestrian: how to get quality, uninterrupted power to Europeans in the future? The presentation can be downloaded and viewed, here.

A different perspective on the current state of the U.S. grid can be found in this article: "How Poor is the U.S. Grid?" and this one: "The U. S. electric grid: will it be our undoing?" (by Gail E. Tverberg)