Using thermal imaging cameras to look for criminal activity within homes is a tactic usually reserved for law enforcement in the fight against drugs. But a municipal government in the UK has appropriated the tactic, and hired a plane outfitted with such technology to identify homes that are wasting energy. Apparently, it’s not the first UK city to do so either.
The tactic obviously raises privacy concerns, even in the UK, where the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras is common. In the US, the approach would likely be considered illegal - the Supreme Court has ruled that the use of thermal imaging technology, even for offenses like marijuana cultivation, requires a warrant.
More…
Despite the historical correlation between economic downturns and reduced energy consumption, interest in demand response (DR) does not appear to be in decline. Recent regulatory developments in New York and Maryland, for example, highlight that policymakers are increasingly aware of demand response’s ability to cost-effectively meet capacity needs and provide value in ways that typical supply-side resources cannot.
The industrial sector has been among the hardest hit in this economy. These important businesses can represent a significant amount of load within a utility’s service territory - one plant closure can mean tens of megawatts (MW) of demand destruction overnight. So why, with auto and manufacturing plants closing across the country, is the demand for demand response growing among utilities and end-use customers alike? Doesn’t the “naturally occurring” demand reduction in these turbulent times lessen the value of demand response to the system? The answer is no.
More…
As the concept of a smart grid builds momentum, a disconnect in its public persona slowly emerges: while the most prominent challenge associated with our existing grid centers on transmission and distribution (T&D - the system that physically connects supply resources to customers), the highest profile solutions focus instead on supply (integration of renewables, vehicle-to-grid) and end-user (smart meters communicating with smart appliances) technologies. How will the smart grid impact the T&D system?
I attended last week’s EUCI conference, Implementation of the Smart Grid for Electric Utilities, and two presentations helped answer this question by detailing utility initiatives to leverage technology as a means of controlling voltage on the T&D system.
More…
The news these days is rife with stories of falling stock prices and failing companies, corporate bailouts and bankruptcies. Cleantech, championed for the last few years as America’s next growth sector, has suffered along with the rest of the economy. PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Index, for example, is trading over 70% lower than it was a year ago (versus the S&P 500 which is down about 47% over the same period). Has the cleantech bubble burst? Actually, I don’t think so. There are quite a few bright spots that point out continued growth in extant cleantech companies despite the drying up of investment capital and the falling price of oil.
More…
Blogs are abuzz with news of the world’s biggest solar deal to date - that of Southern California Edison (SCE) and BrightSource Energy to build several solar thermal towers in the Mojave Desert, adding up to 1.3 gigawatts of energy - comparable to the biggest nuclear power plant in the US. And no wonder the cleantech world is excited - this could be one of the first utility-scale solar installations in California for 20 years, and surpasses in size last year’s PG&E and BrightSource deal for 900 MW. SCE is taking a major step towards reducing the carbon footprint of the power it delivers, and leading the way for the rest of California and the US.
More…
