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The 9 watt GE LED replaces a 40-60 watt incandescent, has a limited warranty of 10 years, and is rated for 22 years. Wow. The odd-looking heatsink helps send light downwards and to the side. It’s expensive now, $50, but in a few years Wal-Mart will be selling them by the millions and the [...] A Ukraine milk factory gets all its power from a biogas cogeneration plant fueled by cow poo. Not only does this cut their expenses, reduce GHG, and keep manure from polluting land and water, they’ve also become energy self-sufficient and it’s all done onsite. Amazing. Imagine what we could accomplish if factories everywhere also [...] A new IBM supercomputer uses warm water from the building to cool the supercomputer, then passes on the heated-up water to be used in heating the building. The Belkin Conserve Valet (pictured here) charges up to four USB devices at once, manages cords nearly, and best of all, automatically shuts off power when a device is charged. They also have sockets with timers, auto-off surge protectors, and energy use monitors. [...] Cypress Envirosystems retrofit 6,000 feet of office space with smart grid thermostats in two hours with no disruption to employees or opening up walls. The new thermostats are controlled centrally and interface with smart grid technology. “For the Smart Grid to reach its full potential, we will need smart buildings to talk to it. [...] Former Director of the CIA James Woolsey recently described the U.S. electricity transmission system as ODAV: Ostrich-Designed and Awesomely Vulnerable. Four challenges stand out: (1) Teaching consumers how to take advantage of the Smart Grid’s capabilities; (2) Making the Smart Grid safe from cyber attacks while keeping it open at both the distributor and ratepayer [...] Smart grid could reduce emissions 12%. Imagine if home appliances worked like a Tivo with customer preferences built into it. Third parties, with customer permission, could monitor usage and bid on services. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5a3Wv2OsQ&feature=player_embedded The Pecan Street Project [in Austin TX] is a community-wide collaboration to fully reinvent the energy delivery system. It’s more than a smart grid project. Pecan Street is an ambitious effort to empower customers and innovators to use the energy system in new ways while making energy cleaner, water usage more efficient and the [...] Ice makers will be installed on roofs of 1,500 buildings in southern California. They will make ice using cheap wind power at night, then use coolant chilled by the ice during the day to power the air conditioning. This will save the buildings substantial money as well as decrease load on the grid during [...] Every now and again, an idea or concept or product comes along, spreads out all over the place and sets a new standard. Take, for example, ATM machines or UPC Barcode or even the internet; looking back, it’s hard to imagine those innovations not being ubiquitous and ever-present. We just accept them today as being [...] |  | ||||
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