Fun little video: 1Sky Fights for Clean Energy

by Liz Rose

Published April 20, 2009 @ 03:07PM PT

1Sky from TakePart With Ideas for Change on Vimeo.

U.S. Energy Dept Offers $3.4 Billion in Smart Grid Grants

by Liz Rose

Published April 17, 2009 @ 12:44PM PT

Ayesha Rascoe of Reuters, reported today (April 17, 2009): "The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday launched the process to distribute more than $3 billion in grants for 'smart grid' technology to modernize electricity transmission. The program, authorized by the economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year, will provide financial assistance from $500,000 to $20 million, matching up to 50 percent of approved project costs. 'By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on foreign oil and create good jobs that will drive our economic recovery -- a strong return on our investment,' Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement."

Vice President Biden Outlines Funding for Smart Grid Initiatives Announces plans for nearly $4 billi

by Liz Rose

Published April 16, 2009 @ 02:17PM PT

Big excitement for grid fans: Here is a press release from the White House on:

(note: this whole document is a White House press release…but it is chock full of good information and it is not online yet, so I am sharing it here. Enjoy!)
Washington, DC – Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Jefferson City, Missouri, today with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, detailed plans by the Department of Energy to develop a smart, strong and secure electrical grid, which will create new jobs and help deliver reliable power more effectively with less impact on the environment to customers across the nation. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Vice President outlined plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.
“We need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country – to take the wind from the Midwest and the sun from the Southwest and power areas across the country,” said Vice President Biden. “By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on foreign oil and create good jobs that will drive our economic recovery – a strong return on our investment.”
On the visit to Jefferson City today, Secretary Locke also announced plans for a Smart Grid meeting in Washington, D.C. that he will chair with Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The event, which will take place in early May, will bring together leaders from key stakeholders’ organizations, largely from private industry, to begin a critical discussion about developing industry-wide standards that will enable the Smart Grid to become a reality. Additionally, industry leaders at the meeting will be expected to pledge to harmonize industry standards critical to developing the smart grid, commit to a timetable to reach a standards agreement and abide by the standards devised.
The meeting will provide a forum for industry leaders to move toward an industry standards agreement critical to developing the Smart Grid. Additional meetings of industry staff on May 19-20 are planned to make further progress on a standards agreement.
"A smart electricity grid will revolutionize the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cybersecurity standards to protect the smart grid from hackers and natural disasters," Locke said. "The Recovery Act will fund the development of those standards so the exciting technology can finally take off."
Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is responsible for assisting with the development of a framework for standards associated with Smart Grid systems and devices.
As part of Vice President Biden's announcement, the Department of Energy released a Notice of Intent (NOI) for the DOE Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, as well as a draft Funding Opportunity Announcement from the Department for a smart grid regional demonstration initiative. Together these efforts will help implement technologies aimed at transforming how electricity providers operate their systems, offer options for increased energy storage and accelerate the integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power with the electrical grid.
“A modernized electrical grid will provide the necessary tools for system operators to analyze and resolve problems quickly,” Chu said. ”It will also expedite how we deliver renewable power to consumers, thus reducing the environmental impacts of generating electricity.”
These investments will help implement the necessary digital upgrades in the home and on the electric grid, enabling it to be more efficient, resilient, and secure. They will also help make the grid capable to effectively integrate renewable supplies, plug in electric and hybrid vehicles, and energy management technologies, ultimately reducing energy infrastructure requirements and our dependence on foreign oil.
$3.375 billion for Smart Grid Investment Grant Program
DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Grant Program will provide grants ranging from $500,000 to $20 million for smart grid technology deployments. It will also provide grants of $100,000 to $5 million for the deployment of grid monitoring devices. This program provides matching grants of up to 50 percent for investments planned by electric utilities and other entities to deploy smart grid technologies. The program will use a competitive, merit-based process to select qualified projects to receive funding.
Eligible applicants include, but are not limited to, electric utilities, companies that distribute or sell electricity, organizations that coordinate or control grid operations, appliance and equipment manufacturers, and firms that wish to install smart grid technology. There will be a 20-day public comment period on the Notice of Intent; the Department will use feedback to finalize the grant program structure and subsequent solicitation.
$615 million for Smart Grid Demonstration Projects
The draft Funding Opportunity Announcement is for smart grid demonstrations in three areas:
• Smart Grid Regional Demonstrations will quantify smart grid costs and benefits, verify technology viability, and examine new business models.
• Utility-Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations can include technologies such as advanced battery systems, ultra-capacitors, flywheels, and compressed air energy systems, and applications such as wind and photovoltaic integration and grid congestion relief.
• Grid Monitoring Demonstrations will support the installation and networking of multiple high-resolution, time-synchronized grid monitoring devices, called phasor measurement units, that allow transmission system operators to see, and therefore influence, electric flows in real-time.
Each demonstration project must be carried out in collaboration with the electric utility that owns the grid facilities. An integrated team approach that includes, for example, products and services suppliers, end users, and state and municipal governments, is encouraged. The projects require a cost share of at least 50 percent of non-federal funds.

The draft announcement will be open for comment for 20 days.

Battle brewing over clean-energy delivery grids

by Liz Rose

Published March 16, 2009 @ 08:10AM PT

In a story from the San Francisco Chronicle....from March 15, 2009

San Francisco Chronicle
Zachary Coile writes about some of the critical elements of the smart grid. He also writes about the problems. He writes:
"President Obama's vision of a clean energy future of wind farms and solar plants comes with a catch: It will require thousands of miles of new high-voltage power lines to move the energy from where it's most abundant, in the California desert or the plains of the Midwest, to power-hungry urban centers.

Obama's allies in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are pushing legislation that would give federal officials new authority to site those lines if states don't act quickly enough to expand the grid."

Coile claims that state regulators have concerns about the plan and he writes that, "The (smart grid) proposal is dividing environmentalists, who are torn between the need to connect to cleaner energy sources and fears the projects could endanger sensitive species."

The article also says that Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes to bring his transmission plan to the Senate floor this summer as part of a massive energy and climate package that would also include a requirement that states boost their use of renewable energy as well as cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas.

Click here to read the <a href="">entire story.
E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.
The article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Big hearing today in energy and commerce on the smart grid

by Liz Rose

Published March 03, 2009 @ 08:35AM PT

Today. Right now, as I type this, on Tuesday, March 3, the Senate Energy and Commerce committee will hear testimony on the process of smart grid initiatives and technologies.

Witnesses (that were announced in advance, sometimes this changes at the last minute) are expected to include Commissioner Suedeen Kelly, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Patrick Gallagher, deputy director, National Institute of Standards and Technology;

Frederick Butler, commissioner, National Association of Regulatory, Utility Commissioners, Newark, NJ;

Edward Lu, Program Manager, Google Inc., Mountain View, CA

Patricia Hoffman principal deputy assistant secretary, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy

Katherine Hamilton, president, GridWise Alliance; and

Evan Gaddis, president and chief executive, National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

The point of this hearing is to lay the groundwork for what needs to be in the big climate change bill and in the energy bill. Both of which need to happen ASAP to reverse 8 years of oilmen in the White House and to give the US what it needs to lead the world in response to the climate crisis going in to the Copenhagen talks at the end of this year.

This hearing is an important step in laying the groundwork for the smart grid.

Big Energy n Climate Confab in DC on Feb 23

by Liz Rose

Published February 22, 2009 @ 06:07PM PT

Heads up....There is a big a confab called “National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy” tomorrow (Monday, February 23, 2009) in Wash, DC.

Sponsored by the Center for American Progress' Action fund, most of the big energy and climate players will be there: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, President William Jefferson Clinton, Vice President (and Nobel Prize winner) Al Gore, Energy Secretary (and Nobel Prize winner) Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA).

Rumor has it that there will be lots of high level discssion of the grid and about moving America to a renewable energy economy at the big CAP confab. I, for one, cannot wait to hear about it. The CAP energy summit should get a good bit of media coverage (how can it not? TWO Nobel Prize winners? a former President? The Senate Majority Leader?), so watch for it. I suspect the new energy grid will get some airtime tomorrow, which is good news. You can actually watch it live via streaming video if the technology gods allow.

If you want to read more about the green grid, Bracken Hendricks, 1Sky board member and Center for American Progress Fellow, has written a fantastic paper on the green grid that you can access here if you are up for a deep dive and want to know more.

This is going to be a great week for important steps toward solving the climate crisis. Starting with this summit of climate leaders and ending with the PowerShift 09 (a gathering of 10,000 climate activists -- many of them students.)

Recovery package is looking good

by Liz Rose

Published February 12, 2009 @ 09:45AM PT

We are hearing good news about the recovery package, although with the sausage-making nature of behind the scenes conference reporting we cannot be sure what exactly is in there, but we have been told that the Recovery package bill allocates $30 billion for smart grid technology, advanced batteries, and energy efficiency measures, along with $5 billion for home weatherization and $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient -- closer to the House version than the Senate's. So that is good news.