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GreenMonk news roundup 09/29/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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September 28th Energy and Sustainability show

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Here is today’s GreenMonk Energy & Sustainability show. I had a couple of problems with the audio setup starting out so the show started a couple of minutes later than normal. Unfortunately, for some reason the quality of the video recorded by Ustream was atrocious (as you can see above – no idea why that was, must look into an alternative for next week). In the meantime, the links from the shownotes below may be of use.

This being the week following the GridWeek conference in the US, as expected there are many Smart Grid references!

03:35 Tom Raftery: Are we doing better now?
03:35 Joe Garde: thats it tom
03:36 Joe Garde: audio on!
03:36 Tom Raftery: Sorry about that
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/28/philippines-storm-death-toll
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/sep/28/philippines-philippines
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6236690/Met-Office-catastrophic-climate-change-could-happen-with-50-years.html
03:41 Tom Raftery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxCQHn-w0Bw
03:41 Joe Garde: all was fine
03:41 cgarvey: Worked OK, yup
03:42 cgarvey: The video’s site is http://co2isgreen.org/ for further info (if you want to do that to yourself!)
03:42 Joe Garde: shocking Tom
03:43 Tom Raftery: http://understory.ran.org/2009/09/15/breaking-activists-drop-70-banner-off-of-niagra-falls-to-tell-canadian-pm-no-tar-sands-oil/
03:45 Tom Raftery: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/ibm-proves-smart-grid-reduces-energy-use-by-15-reveals-key-to-success.php
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/09/16/ibm-launches-software-to-standardize-accelerate-smart-grid-startups/
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-light/post/smart-grid-stimulus-wait-for-it-doe-says
03:48 Tom Raftery: http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/09/23/siemens-silver-spring-announce-smart-grid-interoperability/
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/09/22/trilliant-abb-partner-to-make-smart-grid-technologies-interoperable/
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/09/22/silver-spring-networks-gobbles-up-greenbox-to-become-smart-grid-powerhouse/
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://green.venturebeat.com/2009/09/14/itron-teams-with-openpeak-for-more-advanced-home-energy-use-management/
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_092409.html
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE58L59720090922?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2177
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2250179/south-korean-utility-spend-4bn
03:54 Tom Raftery: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327271.900-better-world-global-green-heroes.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=environment
03:56 Tom Raftery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6851682.ece
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/09/better-place-renault-let-a-100000-electric-cars-bloom/
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090921b.html?mtxs=rss-corp-gcnews
04:00 Tom Raftery: http://www.apple.com/environment/
04:01 Tom Raftery: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/09/ebay-greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction-target-15-percent-by-2012/
04:01 Tom Raftery: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/09/nissan-tackles-the-silent-electric-car-problem/
04:02 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/technology/25bulb.html?_r=2&src=twt&twt=nytimesscience
04:09 cgarvey: Thanks again Tom!
04:09 Joe Garde: cheers tom
04:09 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for your time, interest and contributions

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GreenMonk news roundup 09/26/2009

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  • Build a Better Bulb for a $10 Million Prize – NYTimes.com

    he ubiquitous but highly inefficient 60-watt light bulb badly needs a makeover. And it could be worth millions in government prize money — and more in government contracts — to the first company that figures out how to do it.

    Right now, that company could be Philips, the Dutch electronics giant. The company announced on Thursday that it had submitted the first entry for the L Prize, an Energy Department contest that will award up to $10 million to the first person or group to create a new energy-sipping version of the most popular type of light bulb used in America.

    tags: incandescent, light bulb, philips, L prize, led, cfl, GreenNumbers, greenmonktv

  • Chemical Time Bomb in Ukraine Endangers 7 Million People

    The health of at least 7 million inhabitants in Moldavia and Ukraine is seriously threatened by a single stock of old pesticides.

    This has been reported by the International HCH and Pesticides Association (IHPA). According to the organization the EU must act as fast as possible to disarm this ‘biggest chemical time bomb of Europe’.

    tags: pesticides, pollution, ukraine, moldavia, hcb, GreenNumbers, greenmonktv

  • Commerce Secretary Unveils Plan for Smart Grid Interoperability

    Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today unveiled an accelerated plan for developing standards to transform the U.S. power distribution system into a secure, more efficient and environmentally friendly Smart Grid and create clean-energy jobs.

    The draft of the report is available at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_interoperability.pdf.

    Produced by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the approximately 90-page document identifies about 80 initial standards that will enable the vast number of interconnected devices and systems that will make up the nationwide Smart Grid to communicate and work with each other. These standards will support interoperability of all the various pieces of the system—ranging from large utility companies down to individual homes and electronic devices. The report also lists a set of 14 “priority action plans” that address the most important gaps in the initial standard set.

    tags: commerce secretary, gary locke, nist, standards, smart grid standards, smart grid, greenmonktv

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Green Numbers round-up 09/25/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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The Electricity 2.0 revolution has begun

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Smart meter projects globally

This is a map of current smart meter/smart grid projects globally overlaid on Google maps.
Screenshot credit Me(!)

I wrote my first Greenmonk post about Smart Grids and Demand Response back in April 2008 and followed up with a few more in the next few weeks including one in June 2008 where I said the electrical distribution system needed to be more like the Internet. Those posts were extremely cutting edge at the time but the world has caught up considerably in the last 18 months due in no small part to the election of Barack Obama and the focus on energy efficiency in his stimulus package!

Under Obama’s administration the US Dept of Energy announced in June of this year the rules for $3.9billion in Smart Grid stimulus grants. The first winners of $3.9 billion in smart grid stimulus grants will be announced in mid-November according to DOE deputy press secretary Jen Stutsman.

In a very positive move earlier this week, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu endorsed the importance of Demand Response as part of the solution when he said that electricity costs should move to reflect demand. Secretary Chu went further though arguing for the kind of automated Demand Response we have proposed here on GreenMonk when he said:

“Price signals do matter, but you can’t just simply use a price signal,” Chu said. “You really have to make it very easy to save energy.”

Consumers need to have a very simple system that will provide them with specific information about their energy use and they should be able to adjust their appliances so that they run mostly during non-peak energy hours

Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril announced last week that mass market home energy management is three years away. Obviously, being the CEO of a company in the space, he would say that, wouldn’t he? But looking at the slew of announcements which came out of the Gridweek conference (see below) it is hard to fault his optimism.

And just yesterday U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) presented for public comment a major new report on Smart Grid interoperability standards. The approximately 90-page document [pdf] identifies about 80 initial standards that will enable the vast number of interconnected devices and systems that will make up the US Smart Grid to communicate and work with each other.

You know that the administration is taking Smart Grids seriously when the Commerce Secretary presents for public comment a report on standards!

This week saw the GridWeek conference happening in Washington DC and with it a massive slew of Smart Grid related news. I’ll try to do a quick round-up of the main stories:

Partnerships

Acquisitions

Smart Cities

Launch

Other Announcements

With finance, administration backing and so many announcements (many of which are worthy of blog posts in their own right) there is no doubt but that the Smart Grid train has well and truly left the station. There are still a significant number of issues to be addressed by companies involved in the Smart Grid space. Some companies will founder, some deployments will fail (esp as utilities are notoriously bad at customer communications!) but there is no doubt that finally the Electricity 2.0 revolution has begun – there’s no turning back now.

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GreenMonk news roundup 09/24/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Rich Lechner Sept ’09 on “Global Electric Utilities – the adaptation challenge” report

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Rich Lechner is IBM’s VP Energy and Environment and comes on GreenMonk TV every month.

This month we discussed a report IBM sponsored and which was written by Acclimatise called Global Electric Utilities – the adaptation challenge

Some points to note from the report:

  • 87% of businesses in the FTSE 350 acknowledge that their business is at risk from climate change
  • Less than 33% have any plans in place to address that risk
  • Over 90% of utilities acknowledge that their business will be impacted by climate change
  • Less than 30% of the utilities reported having documented plans to manage or avoid that risk
  • Only 6% identified opportunities associated with climate change
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September 21st GreenMonk Energy & Sustainability show

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Here is the chatstream from today’s Greenmonk Energy and Sustainability show:
03:30 Tom Raftery: About to kick off the show Info
03:31 cminion: Afternoon
03:31 Tom Raftery: Do we have working audio/video
03:31 cminion: very quiet here
03:31 marilynpratt: sound is a bit off
03:32 yellowpark: morning
03:32 marilynpratt: good
03:32 marilynpratt: yes great
03:32 yellowpark: yes
03:33 Tom Raftery: http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/f6f88ba8825d16175be07468e0d47fc3.html
03:34 dahowlett: hello peeps
03:35 yellowpark: hi dennis
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/gallery_glaciers
03:36 yellowpark: makes for big paddling on the bright side
03:36 monkchips: ah feck tom you trying to depress us again?
03:36 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/17/bluefin-tuna-fishing
03:36 dahowlett: @monkchips – @tom’s mission in life is to be more curmudgeonly than me
03:36 Tom Raftery: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1921177,00.html?iid=digg_share
03:36 monkchips: 😉
03:37 monkchips: yay!
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/sep/16/climate-change-beer-quality
03:37 marilynpratt: good news from US- is it suspect?
03:37 cminion: ??
03:37 dahowlett: @tom must be ‘pissed’ off
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/28/bp-alternative-energy
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=7343
03:38 cminion: Short term goals
03:39 monkchips: i am watching. have been tweeting!
03:40 monkchips: Landis and SAP http://www.landisgyr.com/en/pub/media/press_releases.cfm?news_ID=4012
03:40 yellowpark: @monkchips multi tasking!
03:41 marilynpratt: thanks 🙂
03:41 monkchips: there is so much hideous fud in this space
03:41 Tom Raftery: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/boulders-smart-grid-city-goes-mostly-live.php
03:41 monkchips: this week the story was smart meters to cost consumers £300 each
03:41 dahowlett: Doesn’t @monkchips know? Multi-tasking is said to be unethical. Personally I think that’s a crock
03:41 monkchips: currentcost should be so lucky!
03:42 monkchips: i mean- we know they dont cost that much
03:42 monkchips: absurd!
03:42 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/08/carbon-capture-north-sea
03:43 dahowlett: That’s one giant brain fart
03:44 monkchips: i will happily keep it in my shed
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.marcgunther.com/2009/09/20/fpl-americas-no-1-wind-power/
03:44 marilynpratt: so the sea will become a hazardous waste dump
03:45 monkchips: @marilynpratt the sea already is.
03:45 marilynpratt: and we know that never happens in above ground storage
03:45 monkchips: this would actually make use of the big holes from all the oil we sucked out
03:47 monkchips: tom- you got a better idea?
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2117
03:48 Tom Raftery: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lithium-ion-batteries-hybrid-electric-vehicle-recycling&sc=CAT_TECH_20090916
03:48 monkchips: VERY interesting news from Frankfurt
03:48 monkchips: the electric vehicles were all taken off their stands etc when it opened to the public!
03:49 monkchips: that is – the EVs are all concepts for industry insiders…..
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://solveclimate.com/blog/20090911/aussie-activists-target-world-s-most-polluting-coal-plant
03:52 Tom Raftery: http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINB47611720090913
03:52 Tom Raftery: http://www.ptinews.com/news/279619_Victorian-govt-to-export-brown-coal-to-India–Report
03:52 yellowpark: Interestingly, E.On announced today they have produced an electricity menu
03:52 monkchips: ah ****
03:53 monkchips: so much for tech transfer.
03:53 monkchips: they also sell paper to japan
03:53 monkchips: ******* idiots
03:54 Tom Raftery: http://www.snp.org/node/15664
03:54 dahowlett: @tom – where’s the beer?
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.forexyard.com/en/reuters_inner.tpl?action=2009-09-16T103243Z_01_LG56714_RTRIDST_0_EU-GRID-NORTHSEA
03:55 dahowlett: them jocks are strapping
03:55 dahowlett: @tom – my head is still on the beach
03:55 monkchips: jocks? you mean “sweaties…”
03:56 Tom Raftery: http://homecamp.org.uk/2009/09/18/adventures-in-home-energy-monitoring-or-how-i-became-the-energy-enforcer/
03:57 monkchips: did you see the comment from his dad?
03:57 monkchips: CLASSIC!
03:57 dahowlett: wonderful!
03:58 marilynpratt: As a parent ROFL
03:58 cminion: Oddly enough for us, my gf pays the elec bill and im the one who is trying to reduce it
03:58 Joe Garde: spend most of my time running around after my kids to turn off lights!
03:58 monkchips: the really crucial point about joe
03:58 monkchips: and energy management
03:58 monkchips: is that he doesn’t believe in anthropomophic climate change!
03:58 marilynpratt: Brilliant
03:59 dahowlett: yes Tom – you are a horrible energy dictator
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327251.300-better-world-redefine-the-bottom-line.html
03:59 marilynpratt: same applies for gas at pump in the states
03:59 dahowlett: Living in Wigan: electricity cost £144/month. Andalucia €50/month
04:00 monkchips: ah shite i have to bank out now. but sarkozy is my man of the week- beyond GDP http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/09/14/sarkozy-adds-to-calls-for-gdp-alternative/
04:00 Joe Garde: WINDPOWER OUTLOOK 2009 PDF http://www.awea.org/pubs/documents/Outlook_2009.pdf
04:00 Tom Raftery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8266200.stm
04:01 marilynpratt: just look at the health record in the US – poor
04:03 dahowlett: Wind famrs expanding in Sierra Nevada/Alpujarra
04:03 yellowpark: thanks tom
04:03 Joe Garde: Thanks Tom, glad you made it this week
04:03 marilynpratt: Excellent show Tom
04:04 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for your time and interest
04:05 Tom Raftery: (and all your excellent contributions obviously!)

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GreenMonk news roundup 09/19/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.