IBM Survey Reveals New Type of Energy Concern: Lack of Consumer Understanding
Updated: 2011-08-31 20:09:58
: Smart Grid Blog News updates on smart grid technology Home About Contact Us Videos Downloads IBM Survey Reveals New Type of Energy Concern : Lack of Consumer Understanding Posted by Derek on August 31, 2011 News Hello there If you are new here , you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this . topic IBM NYSE : IBM today unveiled findings from its 2011 IBM Global Utility Consumer Survey , 8221 which revealed that many consumers around the globe do not understand the basic unit of electricity pricing and other energy concepts used by energy providers . The company also identified a list of crucial behavioral patterns that have the potential to impact how providers communicate and drive motivation amongst . consumers via IBM Survey Reveals New Type of Energy Concern : Lack
Aug 30 2011 Getting to the Roots of Global Warming Posted by : Jonathan Marshall The thickening blanket of greenhouse gases now raising the world's temperature to feverish levels mostly originated from underground carbon in the form of oil and coal . If we could send a big portion of that carbon back where it came from , humanity might buy time to end the threat of climate . change An experiment in Marin County could help do just that . The Marin Carbon Project is studying the potential for managing ranch soils to increase their carbon content along with their fertility , water-holding capacity and other . benefits Healthy soil is full of organic matter , rich in carbon . That includes roots , microbes , fungus , and decomposed humus , which provides an ideal growing medium . Humus forms
All, I wanted to introduce you to one of my colleagues, Ruben Fair, who will be discussing a new project ...
Aug 29 2011 The Power of Diversity Posted by : Jonathan Marshall The Great State of Texas has been cursed this summer by record temperatures and the worst drought in its history despite the prayers of its governor But it's been blessed in at least one way : the winds have kept on blowing , spinning turbines that have kept air conditioners humming in the face of record power . demand Texas was once a poster child for what can go wrong with fickle wind power . Back in February 2008, a cold front stalled the turbines in West Texas slashing their output by about 1,600 megawatts and forcing an emergency curtailment of power to many large . customers This August , however , as wind speeds in West Texas dropped with the afternoon heat , new coastal turbines picked up the slack , according to
Aug 26 2011 Climate Changes Posted by : Christine Cordner Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this : week Global climate fluctuations are playing a role in violent conflicts , according to a new study that has linked the hot , drier weather brought by the El Niño climate pattern with conflicts in the affected countries . Using data from 1950 to 2004, the researchers concluded that the likelihood of new conflicts arising in these countries , mostly located in the tropics , doubles during El Niño years as compared with wetter , cooler . years Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has receded dramatically during this summer , opening up two new shipping lanes the Canadian Northwest Passage and Russia's Northern Sea Route , according to a new report from
Aug 26 2011 Solar Energy From Cucumbers Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Pressure of work sometimes keeps me from getting to items longer than I would like . Here's one story on a remarkable form of solar power that's been sitting in my in-box for nearly 300 years . But I think you'll agree it hasn't gone . stale It concerns an unkempt inventor with sooty hands and face , his hair and beard long , ragged , and singed in several places who has devised a way of extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers . rdquo In short , a novel kind of hybrid solar-biomass . power That's not all . He reportedly stores the sunbeams in hermetically sealed phials , from which they can be released to warm the air in raw inclement summers , rdquo like those here in San Francisco Such a thermal energy storage scheme
CNET Home sign in with log in join CNET welcome , my profile log out Home You are : here Reviews News Downloads Video How To Cell Phones Camcorders Digital Cameras Laptops TVs Car Tech All Categories Menu Appliances Camcorders Car Tech Cell phones Cell phone accessories Components Desktops Digital cameras eBook Readers Games and gear GPS Hard drives and burners Headphones Home audio Home video Internet access Laptops Monitors MP3 players Networking and Wi-Fi Peripherals Printers Software Tablets Televisions Web hosting Forums Join the . conversation close Like CNET on Facebook for the latest in tech news and . reviews Don't show this again Home Reviews The Car Tech blog The Car Tech blog Sewage-powered hydrogen fueling station opens in CA By : Liane Yvkoff August 26, 2011 3:55 PM PDT Print
Aug 25 2011 The Promise and Pitfalls of Blue Power Posted by : Jonathan Marshall If we mortals could tap into Neptune s power , many of our energy problems would be solved . The world's waves and tides hold immense potential for clean power generation but they remain tantalizingly difficult to . harness After a three-year effort to investigate the potential of wave energy off California s coast , PG E finally pulled the plug this spring on its WaveConnect project The regulatory and permitting challenges , opposition from some local stakeholders , the immature state of technology and the high cost of implementation make it impractical for . now Sonoma County recently followed suit allowing federal regulators to cancel permits allowing its water agency to investigate wave power at three
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Aug 24 2011 What Price Renewable Energy Posted by : Jonathan Marshall All Americans should applaud the leadership shown by California and other states in promoting greener sources of energy at a time when signs of global climate change are becoming ever more . ominous But they should cheer with their eyes open . Renewable energy isn't a free lunch . Many forms of it remain more expensive than traditional fossil generation , though much less destructive of the . environment A good way to compare costs on an apples-to-apples basis is to look at the so-called levelized cost of energy LCOE which includes the cost of capital , fuel , financing , and operations and maintenance per unit of . energy A recent report by the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto looking at the underlying
Aug 23 2011 The Clean Economy : Half Empty or Half Full Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Most reporters relish a contrarian story , so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to see the recent New York Times headline : Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises Opening with an anecdote from San Jose a center of green innovation , the story claimed , In the Bay Area as in much of the country , the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned . rdquo Hmm Might the fact that the United States is still struggling to recover from one of the worst recessions in its history have anything to do with it You wouldn't know it from the article , but the nation's unemployment rate still hovers above 9 percent . The ratio of adult employment to
Blog Read our latest posts on renewables and energy efficiency Authors Learn more about our passionate blog authors Xcel Energy Visit the Xcel Energy website Search : for Energy Efficiency Tuesday August 23, 2011 by Tim Laughlin tags CFLs energy efficiency Fluorescent Lighting Lighting Rare Earth comments 0 The Rise of the Rare Earth Ruckus A show of hands who loved their high school chemistry class Do you still remember the elements in the periodic table Quick what’s the symbol for Iron How about Hydrogen OK . Those are easy : Fe and H What about Prometheum or Ytterbium While the actual symbols may not be important they’re Pm and Yb in case you’re interested perhaps the better question is why should you care The two elements listed above comprise two of 17 Rare Earth Elements RREs And
Aug 22 2011 Graphene Goes Gangbusters Posted by : Jonathan Marshall To a chemist , organic doesn't mean pesticide-free . It refers to compounds containing carbon atoms . By that test , there's nothing more organic than graphene a miracle substance made up of a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in flat hexagons like chicken . wire First created in 2004 by scientists who won a Nobel Prize only six years later , graphene has just been discovered floating in outer space As previously recounted in NEXT100 graphene has a host of exciting properties , including phenomenal strength and superb conductivity . It's being considered for everything from super-fast , low-power computers , to making jet fuels and even mapping the human genome New discoveries keep expanding the list of
The Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers ( SPIE ) is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science ...
Aug 19 2011 E.T . Don't Call Home Posted by : Jonathan Marshall You can't make this stuff . up A team of physicists at Penn State University has just published a paper in Acta Astronautica arguing that humanity had better tackle global warming before disapproving aliens sentence our species to death for its environmental . crimes Their scenario analysis of human contact with an Extraterrestrial Intelligence ETI offers a range of possibilities , from friendly collaboration to solve world hunger and poverty , to a human conquest of the ETs that give us the opportunity to reverse-engineer ETI technology . rdquo With patent pools selling for billions of dollars these days , that could be an enticing outcome . But then again , ETs might just attack us for Google's Android patents , so I call
Blog Read our latest posts on renewables and energy efficiency Authors Learn more about our passionate blog authors Xcel Energy Visit the Xcel Energy website Search : for Renewable Energy Friday August 19, 2011 by Christian Hawley tags renewable energy solar energy solar panels solar power sustainability comments 0 Harvesting the Wind My husband , a proud Colorado native , has shared with me that one day he will pack his bags , grab his buddies and a cowboy hat and saddle up for a true City Slicker” adventure on a working Colorado cattle . ranch While living out his cowboy dream is something that has yet to come to fruition , I can’t help but chuckle , picturing these city boys on their horses attempting to wrangle them some steers on an authentic cattle . drive However , I must admit ,
Aug 18 2011 More Wind Beneath PG s Wings Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Stretching north to Dixon east to Rio Vista , and southwest to Vallejo Solano County is a fast-growing center for clean energy thanks in part to strong breezes and proximity to electrical transmission lines . For many ranchers and farmers who lease their land to wind energy companies , it has become their most profitable crop The most committed wind developer in the county is enXco which is pulling up 235 antiquated turbines by their roots at an existing wind site just west of Rio Vista and planting in their place modern , high-efficiency generators that will roughly quadruple the site's current . capacity enXco's Shiloh IV project will provide 100 megawatts of wind power to PG E customers , starting by the end of 2012,
Aug 17 2011 The Best Fuel in the World' Posted by : Jonathan Marshall In the Middle Ages , alchemists sought to convert dull lead into shiny gold . Today , the equivalent but more manageable challenge is to recycle costly industrial waste into valuable and sustainable green . products The British startup Aquafuel may have accomplished just that . It says it can use waste glycerine a viscous liquid used in just a few commercial applications from soaps to nitroglycerine to power electrical generators , cargo ships and , down the road , even diesel . trucks Aquafuel won the British Renewable Energy Innovator 2010 award last year for its work on converting highly efficient but traditional combined heat and power equipment from fossil fuels to glycerine . The emissions are remarkably low , and
Aug 16 2011 Make Biomass While the Sun Shines Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Where do you turn for renewable energy in the great plains of North America where wind and solar power are still in their infancy To one of nature's most eager converters of solar energy , . grass Jim Trussler Canadian inventor of a new stove that burns pellets made of hay , switchgrass , and various agricultural wastes from apple cores to corn stover , tells me that hay could be rural North America s savior in the battle to raise farm incomes , lower dependence on foreign oil , and spare the . environment Burning compressed pellets to heat rural and suburban homes and businesses , and even as a fuel supplement in conventional electric power plants , could slash consumption of fuel oil as well as polluting coal ,
Aug 15 2011 How to Turbocharge Solar Power Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Wouldn't it be dumb to run your car's heater off the battery , rather than using heat from the engine Yet that's exactly how most home and business heating systems work from dedicated sources of gas or electric energy rather than by recycling waste . heat A smarter approach is called cogeneration or combined heat and power . It typically uses the heat thrown off by thermal power plants for space heating , hot water or industrial processes . It can raise the efficiency of energy use by a remarkable 30 percentage points or more , making it a relatively clean , reliable technology Cogeneration is most often associated with natural gas-fired generators , but it works with nuclear , fuel cells and even solar . power I've
Hi everybody, I wanted to share a blog entry that I originally posted a few months back on my personal ...
Home by Sector Biofuels Carbon Smart Grid Renewables Solar Storage Transport Water Cleantech News Submit Blog Press Release Advertise Jobs About About Cleantech Blog What is Cleantech Bloggers Bookshelf Contact Cleantech Blog Blog With Us The Winter of Nuclear Energy Report from Manitoba Storing Wind Energy as Hydrogen On August 15, 2011, in Blog Green Executives Speak Out by David Anthony By David Anthony and Ken Brown Wind turbines capture the energy contained in wind . The turbine rotates a shaft which powers an electric generator . The electricity that flows from the generator can go to the wind farm’s grid connection to be consumed immediately or go to storage . We have previously discussed the advantages of storage . Let’s look at storage using . hydrogen Water electrolysis produces
Blog Read our latest posts on renewables and energy efficiency Authors Learn more about our passionate blog authors Xcel Energy Visit the Xcel Energy website Search : for Energy Efficiency Friday August 12, 2011 by Tim Laughlin tags energy bills energy efficiency Home loans saving energy comments 0 A lending hand for the energy-efficient home buyer Last year , my wife and I went through the delightful process of buying a home I also had to sell a home , but that’s a post for another time While we can look back and laugh about it now , there were many times when we thought the deal would fall . apart The home which we now own is an older home , built in the 1920s . We knew going into it there likely would be issues just a given for a home nearly 100 years . old We did our due diligence and
Hi everybody. It was announced two days ago that the US Department of Energy will award GE a $12 ...
Aug 11 2011 More Sunshine on PG Solar Projects Posted by : Jonathan Marshall Positive momentum continues to build on PG E's solar projects , following NEXT100's report on recent progress just three days ago The latest good news is the Department of Interior's decision to approve siting of the 550 megawatt Desert Sunlight Solar Farm on about 4,100 acres of federally managed land east of Palm Springs It's the largest solar photovoltaic project approved by the department , after careful environmental . review The bulk of the project 300 MW worth is dedicated to PG E customers under terms of a contract announced in 2010 after a competitive solicitation for renewable energy in 2008. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the contract without modification last September , ruling
Hey everyone, I have a quick message from my colleague, Prabhjot Singh. We were at a meeting recently discussing a ...
Aug 11 2011 Save the Condors Posted by : Jonathan Marshall My colleague Tracy Correa provided this story , which is excerpted from PG E Currents It is the second part of our series on innovative measures by PG E and other institutions to protect wild . birds In what just might be one of the largest utility company efforts to protect an endangered species , PG E will soon begin a 4.2 million project to reroute high-voltage power lines underground in a remote area near Big Sur in Monterey County The work is aimed at protecting the California condor , a large bird that nearly became extinct in the 1980s but whose numbers are now climbing due to captive breeding and conservation . programs It's unprecedented , rdquo said Joe Burnett , the Ventana Wildlife Society's senior wildlife biologist .
Blog Read our latest posts on renewables and energy efficiency Authors Learn more about our passionate blog authors Xcel Energy Visit the Xcel Energy website Search : for Renewable Energy Friday August 5, 2011 by Tim Laughlin tags battery storage energy storage renewable energy solar panels solar power solartac comments 1 It’s Like Putting Sunshine in a Battery I am not going to lie when I first heard about solar battery storage , I was not overly excited . Because I usually work with our efficiency programs and communicating how our customers can conserve energy and save money I was way out of my comfort zone . And I’d missed lunch , so I was . cranky Now that I’ve had some nachos , I’ll do my best to illuminate you on the . topic You may recall from a previous blog post that SolarTAC
All, I wanted to share with you some information about an event taking place today in Schenectady. As we’ve mentioned ...
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I wanted to write a quick post to let you know about a neat photo journal that you can now ...