Read the rest of High-Tech Off-Grid Mirai Nihon Home Coexists With Nature in Japan

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Post tags: HEMS, Japan, mirai nihon, NISSAN, Nissan Leaf, off the grid, prefabricated house, seawater purification system, smart grid, solor design lab, TBWA\HAKUHODO

Toyota just announced that it has developed a new vehicle-to-home (V2H) power system for the mutual sharing of power between electric vehicles and homes. The two-way electric power supply system can supply power from home to vehicle as well as from vehicle to home. Toyota is going to start testing the system in ten households at the end of 2012 with the help of the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Read the rest of Toyota Develops System that Enables Electric Vehicles To Power Your Home

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Post tags: electric vehicles, green electricity, green transportation, household electricity, plug-in hybrid vehicles, smart grid, Toyota, toyota prius

Using the energy from your electric car to power your house during a blackout is an advancement that could be just around the corner, thanks to new technology that General Electric and Nissan showed off at the SAE 2012 World Congress in Detroit. Keeping with the “Get Connected” theme of the event in Detroit, Nissan and GE showcased interactive exhibits that demonstrated the integration of electric cars like the Nissan Leaf into the home with the latest Smart Grid technologies.

Read the rest of Nissan and GE Unveil New EV Technology That Lets Your EV Power Your House

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Post tags: ecomagination, electric car powering home, electric cars, electric vehicles, EVs, general electric, green automotive, green cars, green design, green living, green transportation, NISSAN, Nissan Leaf, smart grid

In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, residents of South Korea are understandably reticent to back plans for any expansion of nuclear power; instead the state-run utility company, Korea Electric Power Corp, has announced plans to install Smart Meters in all of the nation’s homes by 2020, which will help people to manage their power consumption and hopefully remove the need for an additional nuclear power plant in as little as four years.

Read the rest of South Korea’s Smart Meter Program to Eliminate Need for New Nuclear Reactor by 2016

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", energy saving, Iljin Electric Company, Kepco Korea, Korea Electric Power Corp, LS Industrial Systems Company, nuclear power, Nuri Telecom Co, smart grid, smart meters, south korea

Today GE announced the launch of GeoSpring, its most energy-efficient hybrid-electric hot water heater. They also announced the opening of their new GeoSpring manufacturing facility in Lousiville, KY, which is part of GE’s commitment to invest $1 billion and create more than 1,300 new U.S. jobs by 2014. According to GE, The GeoSpring uses 62% less energy and will save average users $325 a year on their electric bill – imagine the savings if you have shower hogging teenagers!

Read the rest of The New GeoSpring is GE’s Most Efficient Hybrid Hot Water Heater

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Post tags: "energy star", efficient hot water heater, energy efficient appliance, Energy-Efficient Appliances, GE GeoSpring, Green Appliances, green collar economy, green collar jobs, green economy, hybrid hot water heater, smart grid

Switzerland-based industrial machine behemoth ABB just announced plans to throw its weight behind a massive network of electric vehicle charging stations across Europe, the US, and Asia. The company plans to integrate chargers into smart grid systems and allow drivers to juice up their electric vehicles while they are out and about. The announcement is a big nod that the nascent electric car market is set to boom – sources project that over 5 million EVs will be sold each year by 2017, and the charger market is valued at $1 billion.

Read the rest of Industrial Giant ABB Announces Plans for Worldwide Electric Vehicle Charging Network

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Post tags: ABB car charger, ABB EV, ABB EV network, car charger network, electric car charger, ev, ev charger, green car, green transportation, smart grid

China just took a massive step forward for renewable energy as it flipped the switch on the world’s largest battery, which will help integrate a solar project and a wind farm into a smart grid. Capable of storing 36 megawatt hours of power and taking up the area of a football field, the giant battery bank was built as a joint venture between solar and electric car company BYD and the State Grid Corporation of China to improve a large wind and solar electric installation’s efficiency by 5-10%. It looks like we have a race to see who will have the largest battery in world as utilities struggle to make solar and wind technologies usable for longer periods of time.

Read the rest of China Launches the World’s Largest Battery – a $500 Million Behemoth the Size of a Building

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Post tags: 36MW battery, BYD, BYD battery, China smart grid, eco battery, giant battery, smart grid, State Grid Corporation of China, worlds largest battery bank

The Nissan Leaf, heralded as the first all-electric production car, has yet another neat trick up its sleeve. Just unveiled in Japan, the car’s charger can send the battery’s stored electricity back to the grid. Nissan claims its 24kWh battery can power a typical Japanese house for two days, adding short term energy autonomy for a family when the power goes out. Even more impressive, the technology could be a key component in smart grid implementation, smoothing out the production and consumption of clean electricity.

Read the rest of Nissan Leaf’s New Vehicle Charger Lets Your Car Power Your House

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Post tags: balance of electric load, green power, green transportation, Leaf sell back power, Nissan Leaf charger, power sell back, smart car charger, smart grid, smart grid electric cars

This past weekend’s 100 degree heat wave in NY may have broken for now, but chances are that another “Heatpocalypse” is coming. As the weather heats up, our utility grids go into overdrive, trying to accommodate the spike in air conditioner usage, and the need for a smart grid (which we’ve been talking about forever) is even more apparent. Read on to see why it’s even more imperative than ever that we begin implementing the infrastructure for a smart grid now before temperatures rise even more.

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Post tags: eco design, generators, gigaom, green design, green gadgets, green technology, Heatpocalypse, heatwave, smart grid, smart meter, sustainable design, sustainable technology

There’s a lot of yelping these days about the cost of renewable energy technology but in some cases the investment is just a fraction of the payback. For instance, with a nation wide smart grid in the United States, new estimates say we could save up to $2 trillion over the next twenty years with an investment of $476 billion. Trillions in savings sounds like a great kickback to us, and we think that it’s time to get it in our heads that sometimes you just have to pay it forward.

Read the rest of A US Smart Grid Would Save Energy Consumers 2 Trillion Over the Next 20 Years

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Post tags: clean energy costs, clean energy savings, cost of us smart grid, green energy costs, green energy savings, renewable energy costs, renewable energy savings, smart grid, smart grid savings, smart grid technology, us smart grid

The German government announced this week that it is accelerating plans to close its nuclear power plants, and Italy is following suit with a one year moratorium. The announcement comes in the wake of the severe nuclear situation in Japan that followed the earthquake and resulting tsunami, and it is a clear indication of how quickly the political winds have shifted on the issue. Italy had planned on pushing nuclear power by referendum, and Germany has 17 reactors which it now plans to replace completely with renewable energy. German Chancellor’s Angela Merkel minced no words when she declared the situation in Japan a “catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions.”

Read the rest of Germany and Italy Cancel Nuclear Power Plans in Wake of Japan’s Crisis

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Post tags: europe nuclear power, German nuclear phase out, green power, Italy nuclear, no nuclear, smart grid

Energy may be our single largest and thorniest issue as we progress into the middle of the 21st century and some seriously big thinking about new ways to produce it will have to become commonplace in order for us to move away from carbon based fuels and towards renewable fuels and electricity. The World Wildlife Fund in partnership with Ecofys and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s AMO released a report yesterday that outlines a strategy 2 years in the making to end our need for carbon based fuel by 2050. The report is a broad but digestible vision of how civilization can adjust to a renewables-based economy. Like a similar report we profiled last week, the message is start now and think big.

Read the rest of New WWF Report Shows How We Can Get to Renewable Only Energy By 2050

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Post tags: "solar energy”, 100% renewable energy by 2050, “wind power”, Ecofys, energy policy, geothermal energy, green energy, OMA AMO, renewable energy, Renewable energy by 2050, renewable energy study, Renewables by 2050, smart grid, Solar Power, solar powered ferris wheel, stopping global warming, the energy report, tidal energy, tidal power, Wind Renewable Energy, World without fossil fuels World Wildlife Fund

The State of Texas is having an issue convincing its residents to install enough power lines to support its growing wind energy market. Sustainable energy won’t do much good unless you can transmit that power to the places that need it most and most of the time we still need less than attractive high voltage power lines to do that for us. It is a “not in my back yard” argument that the renewable energy world hasn’t really encountered yet — generally it is the turbine people don’t want, as we recently saw in Wisconsin.

Read the rest of Texas Landowners Say “Yes” to Wind Turbines and “No” to Transmission Lines

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Post tags: smart grid, texas power lines, texas sustainable energy, texas wind power, transmission lines, us sustainable energy, us wind energy, us wind power, wind power in america

If you don’t believe that we can kick our dependency on fossil fuels to the curb, think again. A newly released study says we can do it by 2030. Authored by Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobsona, the eye-opening report recently appeared in the journal Energy Policy, detailing how renewable technologies that are available now can completely power our electric grid system in a relatively short 20 years time frame. While the hurtles are massive and the numbers are staggering the report is a hopeful look at how we can eliminate our very bad habit of pumping vast amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

Read the rest of Study Reveals Renewable Energy Could Support All of Civilization by 2030

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Post tags: "solar energy", "wind power", energy policy, geothermal energy, green energy, renewable energy, renewable energy study, smart grid, Solar Power, solar powered ferris wheel, stopping global warming, tidal energy, tidal power, Wind Renewable Energy, World without fossil fuels

The US Navy is on their way to having 40% of their power come from renewable sources by 2020 and a big part of that move is helping their buildings save energy. They’ve got their researchers hard at work devising new technology and one solution that recently emerged from the U.S. Office of Naval Research Global has us marveling at its ingenuity. It is a magnetic energy regulation device that controls the flow of energy to lighting sources. The device also captures residual magnetic energy given off by energy transmitters which it redirects back into the lighting — total savings can be up to 40% at peak times.

Read the rest of Magnetic Energy Device Could Mean 40% Power Savings

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Post tags: buy smart meters, components of a smart grid, how smart meters work, magnetic energy, Magnetic Energy Recovery Switch, new power grid, smart grid, smart meters, where to buy smart meters

The grid is about to get a whole lot smarter with the introduction of synchrophasors — high tech devices that measure and transmit incoming energy data at blinding speeds. When deployed en masse, the nifty devices will help to significantly increase the amount of reliable energy transmitted across the grid. Not only will synchrophasors allow grid operators to better monitor and understand electricity generation and usage, they will help bring more wind and solar power online.

Read the rest of New Synchrophasors Are the Key to a Smarter, More Stable Energy Grid

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Post tags: "wind power", blackouts, Department of Energy, electric grid, grid operators, high-voltage grid, Recovery Act, renewable energy, renewables and the grid, smart grid, Solar Power, synchrophasor

Smart meters — utility meters that provide detailed, real-time information on energy use — promise an easy way to bring down residential power consumption. They help consumers sniff out energy hogs and, by conveying data wirelessly, eliminate the need for armies of meter readers. But, great hopes — and $3 billion in stimulus money — aside, the meters have gotten off to a rocky start.

Read the rest of Smart Meters Hit Bumps in the Road

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Green Building, green design, home energy monitoring, power meters, smart grid, smart meter, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

You may already know this, but our power grid system has been largely left alone for half a century. We’re using inefficient grid technology to try to thread power across our country and in the process are losing precious energy and a lot of cash. As part of the infamous American Reinvestment and Recovery Act–or Stimulus–Obama smartly set aside 3.4 billion dollars to invest in smart grid technology in 2010 and beyond. That block of funding was matched by industry money and private investment to total over $8 billion in funding for everything from installation of smart meters to funding for manufacturing processes.

Read the rest of Obama Sets Aside $3.4 billion Stimulus to Jump Start “Power Grid 2.0″ in US

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Post tags: barack obama, blackout, brownout, energy supply, government, government funding, green energy, grid, obama, politics, power grid, power grid 2.0, president obama, renewable energy, smart grid, smart meter, stimulus

A few weeks ago, we looked at Boulder, Colorado’s plan to become the first smart grid city. But Boulder isn’t the only U.S. city with visions of becoming completely smart meter-equipped. The Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas aims to provide the city with 300 MW (a power plant’s worth) of renewable energy produced within city limits as well as thousands of smart meters installed in local homes and businesses.

Read the rest of Energy 101: Austin’s Pecan Street Smart Grid Project

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Post tags: austin, pecan street, power, Renewable Energy, smart energy, smart grid, texas

In last week’s Energy 101 column, we took a look at the basics of where our energy comes from now. This week, we’re examining the future of energy—specifically, the smart grid. To recap, a smart grid is essentially a modernization of the transmission and distribution aspects of the electrical grid. In terms of transmission, a smart grid makes it easier to deliver alternative energy sources like wind and solar from rural installations to city centers. Without transmission lines, alternative energies are stuck where they’re produced—oftentimes in the middle of nowhere.

Read the rest of Energy 101: What Is a Smart Grid?

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Post tags: boulder colorado, energy conservation, energy meter, first smart grid city, power grid, renewable electricity, smart grid, smart meter, Solar Power, wind energy, xcel energy