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Siemens, Silver Spring announce Smart Grid interoperability | VentureBeat
Interoperability is the elephant in the room that is the Smart Grid space. As large companies, startups and utilities alike strive to create a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid — deploying new technologies wherever they can — it is becoming increasingly important for their devices and networks to be able to communicate and work together. Toward that end, leading smart meter and wireless networking provider Silver Spring Networks announced that its equipment can now integrate seamlessly with electrical substations made by Siemens.
Announced today at the GridWeek conference in Washington, D.C., the deal follows in the same vein as Smart Grid network provider Trilliant’s with substation and power automation provider ABB, unveiled yesterday.
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Cisco recruits Smart Grid players into interoperable consortium | VentureBeat
A day after IBM announced its new SAFE software package providing a standard infrastructure platform for utilities and Smart Grid startups, Cisco Systems has announced its own consortium of companies adopting common IP-based communications standards. In doing so, the company hopes to network Smart Grid stakeholders into a completely interoperable ecosystem for sending and receiving energy consumption data.
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IBM launches software to standardize, accelerate smart grid startups | VentureBeat
As large companies like Intel, Cisco and AT&T eye participation in the new, emerging Smart Grid, IBM has jumped in with both feet — providing software that greases the wheels of grid development and pouring $2 billion into startups and utilities building out a cleaner, more efficient grid. Today, it expanded its presence even more with the launch of its Solution Architecture for Energy and Utilities Framework (SAFE) for startups, a software package intended to support basic operations so that companies can focus on innovation.
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Silver Spring Networks gobbles up Greenbox to become Smart Grid powerhouse | VentureBeat
Silver Spring Networks, a startup that provides IP-based networks and advanced wireless meters to utilities and their customers, just announced that it is acquiring Greenbox Technology, a maker of monitor displays that show homeowners how much energy they are using and how much it is costing them. This extends Silver Spring’s lead over the competition as it eyes an increasingly likely IPO.
In addition to generous funding, Silver Spring also enjoys high-profile utility partnerships with Pepco, Pacific Gas & Electric, Florida Power & Light, Commonwealth Edison and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District — accounting for 25 percent of the U.S. population. It also has a substantial presence in Australia and is rolling out new utility deals every day.
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Itron teams with OpenPeak to bring smart meter data to touchscreens | VentureBeat
Major smart electric meter maker Itron announced today that it has joined forces with home energy management device maker OpenPeak. Their combined technologies will help both utilities and their customers keep closer tabs on exactly how much electricity is being used, why, and how much it is costing.
Itron will be integrating OpenPeak’s line of easy-to-use touchscreen monitors into its smart meter systems
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The US government on Tuesday announced that it will allocate an additional 550 million US dollars in grants to develop renewable energy projects. The goal is to double the US production of renewable energy from solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy production facilities in a few years.
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San Jose, PG&E lift veil on major Smart Grid collaboration | VentureBeat
Pacific Gas and Electric announced today that it’s partnering with the city of San Jose, Calif., to deploy a major project integrating smart meters provided by the utility with the city’s well-developed solar energy infrastructure.
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HP Sets New Energy Reduction Goals, Reports on Environmental Programs
HP today announced it has established new goals to reduce the energy use and carbon intensity of its operations and products as well as reported its progress on environmental initiatives across the company.
HP has already met its goal of reducing combined energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of HP operations and products to 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2010.
HP’s new goal is to reduce the energy consumption and associated GHG emissions of all its products to 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of 2011.
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Nissan Tackles the Silent Electric Car Problem | Triple Pundit
So Tabata and his team consulted Japanese film score composers, and eventually settled on a sound reminiscent of the flying cars in the sci-fi noir film Blade Runner.
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Green power line to Los Angeles hits roadblock | Green Business | Reuters
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to make Los Angeles the “cleanest, greenest big city” in the United States, but a key project to bring renewable energy across the desert to the city could change under pressure from environmental groups.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest U.S. municipal utility with 4 million customers, wants to build an 85-mile transmission line for clean energy, called the Green Path North transmission line.
Activists have decried a proposed path that would cut through the Yucca Valley, two wildlife preserves and the San Bernardino National Forest.
Building transmission lines to bring in power from solar and wind farms has raised environmental and permitting issues across the nation.
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Smart Grid Stimulus: Wait for It, DOE Says | Green Light
Rumors that the Department of Energy was going to announce the first winners of $3.9 billion in smart grid stimulus grants this week have been greatly exaggerated.
That’s according to Jen Stutsman, DOE deputy press secretary, speaking Tuesday at the GridWeek conference in Washington, D.C..
The jam-packed smart grid industry event has had its share of hopeful rumors that grants from the DOE’s commercial-scale and demonstration-scale smart grid programs might come a bit early this year (see DOE Issues Rules for $3.9B in Smart Grid Stimulus Grants).
But Stutsman reiterated that the DOE expects to make its first announcements in mid-November, dashing those hopes.
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Electricity costs should move to reflect demand: Chu | Green Business | Reuters
electricity rates will need to rise to reflect periods of intense energy use and to encourage consumers to change their electricity habits, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
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Microsoft Utilities Delivery Solutions
Microsoft and our partners are preparing for the increasing sophistication and automation of the grid, including the entry of a new type of energy consumer who is also an energy producer and source of stored energy.
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Cisco Continues Global Smart Grid Momentum
Cisco today announced further steps in its efforts to enable development of an end-to-end, highly secure Smart Grid communications infrastructure that will help utility companies and their customers optimize energy supply and demand, improve smart grid security and reliability, and reduce operational costs.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.