More recently, a report, “90-Billion Gallon Biofuel Deployment Study,” co-authored by Sandia National Laboratories found that six tons of biomass was harvested per acre of switchgrass.

A large Nebraska farm study revealed that switchgrass produces 540-percent more energy that consumed during its growth, harvest and processing into cellulosic ethanol, compared with soybean-based biodiesel which offers a 320% energy return. The highest yield reported be Ceres was an experimental variety in California, at 19 tons per acre.

Last year, Ceres supported the prediction that 30% of U.S. transportation fuel could be replaced by dedicated energy crops. However, recent studies have found bioelectricity to be more efficient, offering more energy per acre of cropland, and presenting even fewer environmental impacts.

Ceres’ subsidiary Blade Energy Crops, which consistently provided the highest average yields across several locations during the field tests, released a crop management guide specifically for producers interested in switchgrass last year. Competing with switchgrass is miscanthus, which can convert sunlight into biomass more efficiently.

Switchgrass grows below the surface before it can provide the biomass necessary for ethanol production, making it difficult for farmers who don’t have the necessary capital for a two to three year return. The study by General Motors and Sandia National Laboratories found that 21 billion gallons of ethanol could be produced per year by 2022 without displacing current crops, and could even rise by 2030 to a sustainable 90 billion gallons.

Switchgrass is also part of the growing bioplastics industry, as once plastics have been combined with a polymer found in switchgrass, they can ‘grow’ plastic before the biomass is harvested for energy. An era ago American farms began to use machine power, freeing up millions of acres previously-required to grow crops to feed livestock. Now we are reversing the cycle, dedicating acreage to grow crops to feed our mechanical beasts of burden.

Just two weeks after President Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was replaced by new Kansas governor, Mark Parkinson — who quickly ended a nearly two-year standoff by granting an air permit for a new coal-fired power plant in the southwestern part of the state — another one of the President’s high-profile political appointees will be replaced as governor by a politician less concerned about the environment.

Now that President Obama has tapped Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, a Republican, as the next U.S. Ambassador to China, attention has turned to his likely replacement, Utah Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert, and the direction the new governor plans on taking the state. While observers don’t expect any sudden policy reversals, Herbert’s position on the human-causes of global warming stands in striking opposition to his predecessor’s.

The pair, described by some as a political odd-couple, stand strongly opposed on a variety issues across the political landscape. Herbert said in a news conference Monday that he and Huntsman have always agreed on “core issues.”

“We understand the importance of clean air and clean water and being good stewards of the Earth,” said Herbert, who has said in the past he does not believe in man-made climate change.

While Huntsman had entered Utah into the seven-state Western Climate Initiative in an effort to set the stage for a market-based control on greenhouse gas emissions, Herbert is less concerned with the issue, noting that a carbon cap would raise energy prices and drive jobs overseas.

“I have no plans to pull us out” of the bipartisan cap-and-trade program being developed by Western states, Herbert said, despite calls for such a move by some conservative Republican legislators.

At least he doesn’t plan on pulling out right away.

Herbert will have a shortened one-year term before a special gubernatorial election in 2010. In the meantime, the far-right Herbert will do his best to not rock the centrist ideological-boat that Governor Jon Huntsman had been steering since 2005.

Reprinted with permission from Red Green and Blue

A new study, which researchers have called “the most exhaustive end-to-end analysis of climate change impacts yet performed”, predicts that global warming could be twice as bad as previous estimates had suggested.

Published this month in the Journal of Climate, the MIT-based research found a 90% probability that worldwide surface temperatures will rise at least 9 degrees by 2100.

Pulling from a variety of data sources back in 2007, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) projected temperature increases anywhere from 2 to 11 degrees by the end of the century. Now due to this new data, it looks like the higher range of that projection may be closer to the truth.

The new study was done using 400 applications of a computer model, which included looking at complicated factors such as atmospheric, oceanic and biological systems data, as well as global economic activity. A similar 2003 study had predicted a mere– but still significant– 4 degree increase in global temperatures by 2100, but those models weren’t nearly as comprehensive, and they didn’t take into consideration economic factors.

The most impactful way to lower the projections would be to significantly reduce human-produced greenhouse gas emissions, according to the researchers.

While complex factors such as human economic activity can be difficult to quantify exactly in a computer model, it’s increasingly clear that those kinds of factors have a significant impact on global climate. As this study portrays, the more comprehensive and sophisticated our computer models get, the grimmer the news.

In other words, as our models become increasingly more accurate compared to previous models, global warming reveals itself as more acute rather than less. And it becomes much more apparent just how large of an impact human-induced factors can have on climate change.

Reprinted with permission from Ecoworldly

Solar power provides electricity to houses, why not something smaller, like headphones? A Romanian engineering student has designed Bluetooth headphones that are surrounded by flexible solar cells.

The Q-SOUND (Quantum Sound) headphones are a sleek blend of hexagonal blue solar panels and flexible silver plastic, looking not unlike a gadget that looks more likely to be found on Star Trek than on a jogger. Rotating earpieces and a snug, flexible headband are aimed at keeping would-be listeners comfortable.

The headband designed earphones will have Bluetooth capability, meaning they would be able to connect wirelessly not only to supporting MP3 players, but also potentially communicate with your phone to answer calls. The headphones will also be able to connect directly to any audio devices that use a 3.5mm jack.

The cells will be powering two rechargeable lithium ion batteries above each earphone, and boasts an operating time of up to 40 hours. One hour of sun time works out to over two-and-a-half hours of maximum volume listening.

Shepeleff Stephen is bringing renewable hip comfort to portable audio. A previous attempt at popularizing solar headphones only provided radio listening and provided 19 hours of energy for four hours of sunlight.

As someone who listens to music outdoors far more than inside my apartment, “greening” headphones to take advantage of solar power is definitely something to look forward to.

Found on EcoFriend.

A new company is to be established in the city of Novocheboksarsk in the Chuvash Republic. The company will engage in the entire cycle of production for solar modules, with a planned capacity of one million solar modules per year--the equivalent of 120 megawatts (MW).

“This is the most significant investment in alternative energy on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais said.

Total investment in the project is 20.1 billion rubles (US$638 million). Rusnano will contribute 3.7 billion rubles (US$117 million) to the equity of the new company. In addition, the corporation will offer the project company a loan of 9.8 billion rubles (US$311 million.

Rusnano will hold a 49% equity share in the project company. Renovo will own a 51% stake and will be responsible for development of the business.

The project is scheduled to start in 3Q09 and reach the planned capacity in 4Q11. The company revenue in 2015 is estimated at 10.3 billion rubles (327 million).

Rusnano CEO Anatoly Chubais noted that “a part of the project, the establishment of a major research center, whose expenses for equipment alone will equal one billion rubles, lends it a particular significance.”

The center will work on increasing the effectiveness of the solar modules in cooperation with the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The technology of micromorph silicon thin-film solar modules developed by Swiss company Oerlikon Solar, a world’s leader in the solar energy market, is planned to be used as a basic technique.

Earlier the Supervisory Council of RUSNANO had approved the Corporation’s participation in a project to establish Russia’s first large-scale complex for production of polycrystalline silicon and monosilane, which are raw materials for the manufacture of solar batteries.

Additionally, the solar battery project will stimulate ancillary production within the territory of the Russian Federation, in particular the production of especially pure technical gases and special-purpose glass.

Markets in countries in Southern Europe--Italy, Spain, and Greece--and Germany are primary targets for the sale of products.

Avelar Energy Group (part of the Renovo Group), which installs and adjusts solar modules in Europe, will handles product sales. In the long term, up to 15% of the solar modules are to be directed toward the Russian market.

Reprinted with permission by Sustainable Business, publisher of the Progressive Investor newsletter.

By renovating old buildings and ensuring that new ones use 50% less energy within ten years and generate as much energy as they use by 2030, we can cut U.S. global warming emissions by at least 34% by 2050, the report states.

"Aggressively confronting the building sector is the key to successfully addressing the economy, climate change and energy independence", said Ed Mazria, Executive Director of Architecture 2030; whose call to make all new buildings use zero energy by 2030 has been embraced by President Obama, the nation’s mayors, and a number of governors.

Nearly half of America’s energy--and 10% of the energy used in the world--goes towards powering our buildings, and much of that energy is wasted. Buildings account for 40% of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming. Building a Better Future: Moving Toward Zero Pollution with Highly Efficient Homes and Businesses outlines policy steps that local and state officials and the federal government can take to significantly cut energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with energy efficiency in buildings,” said Rob Sargent, Energy Program Director for Environment America. “Shortsighted builders are being penny-wise and pound foolish when it comes to investments in the energy efficiency of our homes and businesses. They should not be allowed to pass the cost of higher energy bills and excess pollution onto future generations.”

The report calls for a comprehensive plan to make our nation’s buildings more efficient including:

* Upgrading and enforcing building energy codes to require 30% more efficiency by 2012 and 50% more efficiency by 2018, and have all new buildings and substantial renovations meet these codes * Setting codes to have all new buildings be zero-net energy by 2030 through a combination of energy efficiency and onsite renewable energy * Stimulating investments in energy efficiency retrofits in all existing commercial and residential buildings before 2030.

The report illustrates the scale of reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that can be achieved by adopting these measures, including:

* Saving 144 quadrillion BTU, or enough energy to power all of America’s homes, businesses, cars, and power plants for a year and a half * Avoiding a total 11.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050, nearly equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the U.S. and China combined * Paying back upfront costs and netting more than $542 billion in energy savings from renovating existing buildings

"Bold action to improve the efficiency of our nation’s buildings would go a long way toward meeting America’s energy challenges and stopping global warming. But, we must act now,” said Rob Sargent, Energy Program Director for Environment America. “Congress should pass a strong bill that speeds the transition to a clean energy economy and maintains science-based pollution reduction targets.”

Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Business

LEED 2009 was recently released under an umbrella of updates known as LEED version 3, which strives to streamline the certification process and create framework for future developments to the rating system. LEED is a third party certification program recognizing buildings that apply design,construction and operation practices that reduce negative environmental impacts and improve occupant well-being. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability incorporating performance metrics from five categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

Based on a point based system with four levels of certification - certified, silver, gold, or platinum, LEED certification rewards quantifiable performance and allows project teams the flexibility to choose initiatives that are appropriate for the project. It is important to incorporate LEED into the project as early as possible for maximum impact and achievement.

This latest LEED update continues the development of benchmarks for sustainability and incorporates new research and innovations gathered from the current market. One notable change in the LEED 2009 system is a greater emphasis on energy efficiency and CO2 reductions by more heavily weighting their points that are accrued to obtain certification.

LEED 2009 also incorporates regional credits that award points to buildings based on locally significant issues. The purpose of Regional Priority Credits (RPCs) is to incentivize achievement of credits that address environmental issues specific to particular geographic areas.

RPC's are identified by the USGBC chapters and regional councils, and areas are reference by ZIP code. Each specific area has six RPC's per rating system. A project may earn up to four bonus points as a result of earning RPC's, with one bonus point earned per RPC. This may seem confusing, so hiring an experienced LEED Accredited can help streamline the project through the certification process, and it also earns a project an additional LEED credit.

By updating the LEED certification process, the USGBC continues to promote the "triple bottom line" -- environmental responsibility, social well being and economic return. As LEED continues to gain recognition as a benchmark for sustainability, building owners and developers should consider the benefits of a LEED project

Katie Vonderhaar oversees LEED Consulting and Administration, Commissioning and energy Modeling programs for Energy Ace, a sustainability consulting firm helping architects, engineers, building owners and developers design, create and operate sustainable environments.

According to automotive publisher Edmunds.com, the CAFE standard is computed differently than the EPA's MPG estimates that appear on window stickers, so the ratings on vehicles for sale will be noticeably lower.

The disparity in the CAFE calculation versus the real world isn't new, it's just more noticeable now. The government's CAFE requirements are based on tests on a dynamometer machine that simulate road conditions. The EPA downgrades those results in its estimates because they were found to not be reflective of the real world. However the CAFE numbers used to benchmark auto makersremained the same.

Here's how the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration explains it on its website:

"Three different sets of fuel economy values- NHTSA’s CAFE values, EPA’s unadjusted dynamometer values, and EPA’s adjusted on-road values exist. NHTSA’s CAFE values are used to determine manufacturers’ compliance with the applicable average fuel economy standards and to develop its annual report, the Automotive Fuel Economy Program Annual Update. The EPA’s unadjusted dynamometer values are calculated from the emissions generated during the testing using a carbon balance equation... EPA’s adjusted on-road values are those values listed in the Fuel Economy Guide and on new vehicle labels, adjusted to account for the in-use shortfall of EPA dynamometer test values."

The test simulation MPG estimates have been well documented to stray from reality, for years overstating the performance of hybrid vehicles before being corrected in 2007.

“Turns out that there are loopholes almost big enough to drive an SUV through,” said Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwy.

According to Edmunds.com, 29 car models and 36 truck models already achieve the new standard, and about a third of the cars and half of the trucks are produced by a domestic automaker.

The new CAFE regulation of a fleet-wide 35.5 mpg by 2016 will still be a steep incline in mpg for auto makers who are barely meeting today's standard of 27.5 mpg for cars and 24 mpg for light trucks.

Why bother improving energy efficiency? We know we should, but how do you articulate why? Of course, if there is an ROI case to be made then the analysis is easy. But really, it seems to beg a larger issue. Is there a reason beyond ROI?

Whatever the industry, managing costs is good for business, and increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy costs does just that. Given rising energy prices and a growing awareness of the importance of energy conservation, a carefully conceived energy management strategy may well be one of the most important steps a business can take to sustain and grow business.

Furthermore, research by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors suggests that companies with a clear energy management strategy have a competitive advantage. Companies that lead in energy management achieved superior stock and financial performance over “laggards.” They even achieved significant financial premiums in stock prices over competitors. This from the National Environmental Education Foundation:

Companies have been engaging in energy-efficiency strategies for years as a means to control costs. Increasingly, a body of evidence suggests that companies that take a systematic and strategic approach to energy management can enjoy a broad array of tangible and intangible benefits of interest to investors. As ?nancial analysts and institutional investors come to understand this energy-value connection, energy management is becoming another measure by which they assess companies.

The reality is that regardless of what business you are in and whether you currently pay directly for your energy use, rising energy demands, global climate change, and limited energy supplies are likely to impact the relationship between a businesses’ energy use and profitability—now and in the future. While improving energy efficiency may not be the answer to global warming, managing energy use (and waste) is an easy and highly effective way to control costs, minimize risk and do the right thing.

Reprinted with permission from Ecopreneurist

Evergreen Solar intends to use the net proceeds (1) to fund its planned initial 100-megawatts (MW) wafer manufacturing facility in Wuhan, China, which, assuming the Wuhan government provides or facilitates financing for approximately two-thirds of the initial expansion cost, is expected to require between $15 million and $20 million; (2) to purchase capital equipment required for further expansion of its Midland, Michigan factory; and (3) for general corporate purposes, including working capital and possible payments to its Sovello joint venture (or Sovello’s lenders).

Evergreen Solar expects to grant to the underwriter a 30-day option from the date of the final prospectus supplement to purchase up to an additional $9 million of its common stock.

Piper Jaffray & Co. is acting as sole underwriter for the offering.

Evergreen Solar, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets String RibbonTM solar power products using its proprietary silicon wafer technology.

Evergreen Solar recently posted a net loss of $64.3 million for 1Q09.

Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Business

The system ventilates the air inside of the car by using the electricity generated by the solar module on the rooftop to drive the fans while the car is parked during the daytime. This feature automatically moderates temperature rise inside of the vehicle even during hot seasons.

For this product, Kyocera has implemented quality control evaluations, done through rigorous testing to confirm heat resistance, vibration resistance, shock resistance and other aspects, in order to ensure that the quality meets the standards required for onboard components used on the new Toyota Prius.

For the production of this module, Kyocera has set up a dedicated production line with specialized manufacturing engineers to ensure thorough manufacturing control

Reprinted with permission from RenewableEnergyWorld

Google’s plan to roll-out home energy monitoring systems took a step towards reality Tuesday when the company announced the first round of utility partners for its PowerMeter demand-side energy management software.

The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eleven utilities that have installed—or are in the process of installing—smart meters.

By having real-time information about home energy usage on a desktop (running as a Google Gadget), those using the meter will be able to use their energy more efficiently, save money on their monthly bill, and be able to monitor/reduce household carbon emissions.

In the announcement at the Official Google Blog, Ed Lu, of Google’s Engineering Team writes that the first partners include “utilities with millions of customers as well as smaller ones. They are rural and urban, privately held and municipally run. Some are in the United States, others in Canada and India. They all have one thing in common — a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps save energy and money.”

For now, there are limited Google PowerMeter partners, but the company plans to expand their rollout later this year. The PowerMeter utility partners announced Tuesday are:

San Diego Gas & Electric (California)
TXU Energy (Texas)
JEA (Florida)
Reliance Energy (India)
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada)
Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)

Is your utility not on the list? Don’t fret. Lu also indicates in the announcement that Google is looking to partner with more companies that can enable the implementation of the software. Learn more about partner opportunities.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica

BuildingGreen, the Brattleboro-based publisher of the "GreenSpec Directory" and Environmental Building News, May 18 announced a new partnership with Atlanta-based ecoScorecard in which the two databased will cross reference one another when green building products appear in both directories.

The two firms site a growing need to help designers and architects more easily access information about how the products they specify would help a project achieve certification.

GreenSpec Directory lists product descriptions for more than 2,000 environmentally preferable products. Products are independently evaluated and rated by the company's editors according to 26 criteria.

ecoScorecard is a Web-based tool that catalogs a manufacturer's environmentally preferable products and provides architects and designers with the documentation necessary to apply those products to environmental rating systems, which include U.S Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Labs 21 and many other third-party certifications.

With this new partnership, products listed in both databases would get linked together, making it easier for designers to choose products based on how well they perform as well as on their "value" according to many rating systems. Both directories are free to registered users.

Companies currently pay a fee to be listed in ecoScorecard's directory, which was launched a year and half ago by Paul Shahriari and Martin Flaherty. The company is already profitable, Flaherty says.

It has has agreements with 22 brands to catalog information on "thousands of products" says Flaherty, who serves as the company's president, and plans to add approximately 50 more by the end of 2009.

Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Industries

This advice doesn’t come from me personally, I am only passing it on from a lead official within the German Emissions Trading Authority, the American counterpart of which is still a gleam in the eyes of Henry Waxman, Ed Markey, and supporters of their proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 now slowly taking shape in Congress.

He made clear that his advice comes from experience, expressing the hope that the Americans, who need to get up to speed quickly, could learn from the German’s first stumbles initiating their own cap and trade program, as was Germany’s first-round of emissions trading (Germany’s first round of trading, the “learning by doing phase”, lasted from 2005 to 2007. The second round of trading, the “stabilization and refinement phase” is in place until 2012.)

The advice? Beware the lobbyists and the excessive pressure they exert on the process.

“Early cap and trade [proposals] receive enormous lobby’” Dr. Enno Harders told our international group of journalists and bloggers earlier this month while visiting the offices of the German Trading Authority. Dr. Harders emphasized the need for legislators to exercise leadership and steel themselves with the political will to “resist the excessive lobby pressure that makes initial cap and trade ineffective.”

The concerns expressed by the more experienced Germans follow closely with the concerns of the “Green Big Guns” outlined yesterday in David Levitan’s excellent post.

And it is a well-placed concern. A recent report in the Guardian shows a 50% increase in lobbying efforts from the oil, gas, and coal in the first three months of this year, spending up to $45 million to pressure lawmakers to shut down support for president Obama’s efforts to enact clean energy and climate legislation. “The pressure is enourmous,” says environmental reporter Suzanne Goldenberg, from an advertising barage to money funneled into the coffers of key legislatures, the heat, as it were, is on.

Though Goldenberg reports that supporters of the Waxman-Markey bill are spending more money than ever before to counter this pressure, it is but a “drop in the bucket” in comparison with the resources available to the mamoth fossil energy industry.

The whole world is watching the process unfold and fear that America will fail once again to take a leadership role in building a new, low carbon energy economy.

And so it comes down to the pleas from expert observers like Dr. Harders for legislators to exhibit, perhaps as never before, political will - and do it in the face of enormous pressure to continue with the short-sighted, vested interest for business as usual. For some at the risk of their own political career. Sometimes that’s what it takes to do the right thing.

We need heroes in Congress.

Reprinted with permission from Red Green and Blue

The project includes a backpackers’ hostel (www.rongobackpackers.com), a motel complex (www.karameamotels.com), a gallery (www.globalgypsy.com), a community radio station, permaculture farm and eco-tourism adventures. It is run by a group of dedicated, enthusiastic, positive volunteers from all over the world.

The project is five years deep and is growing with a quickness, it is said, but could use a hand or two from those with time, skills, interest in visiting the New Zealand-based community and, of course, some philanthropic assistance is welcome:

Additional funds are required to renovate the motel buildings, develop the farm, build Web sites and improve the quality of the facilities and services we offer our guests. For more information on how to invest in the LivinginPeace Project, please contact Paul Murray directly by e-mail: rongo@actrix.co.nz

Reprinted with permission from Ecoscraps

Progress towards building a smart power grid took a leap forward this week with the release of grid interoperability standards and increases to grant awards to achieve this "urgent national priority."

As support from the Obama administration continues alongside growing demands for enhanced energy stability and reduced emissions, companies like Cisco are rushing to develop smart grid communications technology.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the 16 smart grid standards after serving as chairmen at an energy industry meeting, a gathering that was intended to foster standards adoption by key players. Together they emphasized the urgency of advancing the electric power grid, and echoed the industry need for open source that have been previously voiced by groups like the ZigBee Alliance.

“We took a significant step toward developing the open and transparent interoperability standards necessary to realize the Smart Grid vision,” said Secretary Locke. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has been working on smart grid standards since 2007 under the Energy Independence and Security Act, recognized the initial 16 standards, which will allow for compatibility between numerous competing technologies.

The two Secretaries announced that the Department if Energy would be increasing the smart grid program awards under the Recovery Act, raising the maximum Smart Grid Investment Grant Program award from $20 to $200 million and Smart Grid Demonstration Project awards from $40 to $100 million. In addition, $10 million in stimulus funds will be provided to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to support standards development.

Getting all of the equipment and service providers who participate in the grid to communicate will be like herding cats. "The smart grid is very heterogeneous, and anyone acting like it’s homogeneous is vastly oversimplifying it," said Steve Widergren, Smart Grid Interoperability & Standards Coordinator for the DOE, earlier this month.

Because pieces of the smart grid were developed independently to work in a smaller universe, getting them all to work together is a formidable task. IT giants like Cisco are addressing that challenge.

Utilities are looking for open standards so they won’t be forced to buy from one provider and non-standards based hardware upgrades are no picnic. As one of the companies that worked to develop DOCSIS (international cable standard), Cisco is intimately familiar with the issues that can arise with open standards.

Cisco announced this week that they be developing their smart grid strategy, aggressively moving into smart grid communications infrastructure, which they refer to as an estimated $20 billion annual market as systems are rolled out over the next five years and according to one of their senior VPs, is a one of their “key market priorities.” Their plan involves building on their existing infrastructure by working on networking and security solutions for smart grid communications, home and enterprise energy management,

While some of Cisco’s work is redirecting existing technology towards electrical grid applications, such as putting wide area network routers on utility poles. The company aims to eventually have devices that will allow for home devices not only to display power consumption, but also to communicate with other nearby devices and connect to a utility. Keeping utilities and consumers connected would reduce power usage during peak times.

Cisco will be working with a number of utilities worldwide and began recently their “Energy Smart Miami” involvement with General Electric, Florida Power & Light and Silver Spring Networks to deploy Miami smart grid tech (Cisco is also planning work to monitor energy usage, and engage citizens with social media, in San Francisco, along with a project partnering with NASA to analyze emissions.

Cisco will be building on their EnergyWise network, an energy management tool that runs through Cisco Catalyst network switches. Cisco’s new switches and routers are also intended to monitor and reduce power consumption in the home and will also be working inevitably with smart meters as they are further implemented.

Cisco also has plans to address growing security issues that come with large network areas; an evolution that will be spurred undoubtedly by their work in pilot projects like Energy Smart Miami and the Pecan Street Project.

Oracle's Utilities division has introduced smart grid software - that helps utilities to leverages advances in IT, communications technology and energy technology to make power delivery more efficient while reducing emissions. The software will be used by utilities in demand response and energy conversation programs and to manage the integration of intermittent renewable energy.

The suite of software includes applications for managing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) smart meters, customer service and billing, analyzing utility loads, and complying with federal reporting regulations.

Chairman of the GridWise Alliance Guido Bartels said that communicating with the federal secretaries showed confidence that Smart Grid standards will be completed by September and that the decision made this week will “put the US on the fast track globally and help the US become the world leader in smart grid development.” Big players like Cisco making their way into smart grid development will provide the continued market attention that the formation of the energy grid of the future requires.

Today at Santana Row, in the heart of Silicon Valley, The City of San Jose, Coulomb Technologies, Fisker Automotive and Fisker Silicon Valley have partnered on the Silicon Valley debut of Fisker vehicles. Come see these incredible vehicles, unveiled here today.

Early last year, on a tour of automakers, we met with Fisker Automotive, the developer of the Fisker Karma. The Karma is an Extended Range Electric Vehicle capable of traveling 50 miles purely on electricity before switching to gasoline for those times when you need the extended range. Since the average person drives less than 30 miles a day, you won’t need to use gasoline for the most part. But that’s not the whole story of Fisker’s vehicles. These cars are stunning in their beauty, performance, and comfort.

On hand for the Monday announcement will be world-renowned Danish-born auto designer Henrik Fisker, who was responsible for the design of the BMW Z8 roadster and the Aston Martin Vantage, and was formerly director of Ford’s Global Advanced Design Studio. Fisker is now focusing his design efforts on premium green sports cars. By showcasing their new vehicles and promoting their availability through Fisker Silicon Valley, the company is fulfilling demand for no-compromise alternative fuel transportation. In addition, civic leaders from the City of San Jose and the new General Manager of Fisker Silicon Valley, Adam Simms, will speak.

Coulomb Technologies will also be there. Since our inception, we have listened to our friends at the automobile manufacturers, the utilities, state, local and federal government and environmentalists about the infrastructure needs of the electric vehicle industry. Through the power of listening and a bit of innovation, Coulomb has developed strategic partnerships and alliances resulting in an inclusive community. We listen. We don’t tell people how their cars should charge or what their batteries should be. They tell us. Some examples:

The Need: If you ask, automobile manufacturers including GM, Toyota, Ford, Mercedes, Nissan and newcomers like Fisker, Tesla, Phoenix, and BYD will tell you what the vehicles that they are developing need from a charging infrastructure in terms of connectors, voltage and current. They’ll also tell you their battery capacities and charge times.

The Result: Working closely with automobile manufactures, Coulomb developed a charging station that would fit any plug in vehicle. Coulomb also works with the automakers on the SAE committee specifying the standard interconnect systems for US Vehicles, to bring standardized interfaces to market.

The Need: The utilities said they needed an infrastructure that tied to the Smart Grid in order for them to support daytime charging.

The Result: Coulomb integrated Demand Response capability in every one of its stations to protect the grid during critical peak load times and schedule charging at times when there is plenty of energy available. Coulomb has several plans including: an “Off Peak Plan” that disables charging from 12-6 PM; a “Demand Response Plan” that disables charging when the grid nears capacity; and the “24/7 Plan” that disables charging only during grid crisis.

The Need: The City of San Jose committed to making their streetlight system carbon neutral.

The Result: In July 2008, San Jose became the first U.S. city to test electric-vehicle charging stations from Coulomb Technologies. The charging stations are outfitted in public, mounted on streetlight poles. A Coulomb charging station will enable someone to switch from gasoline to electricity as a fuel, which saves more greenhouse gases than what is needed to produce the power required for 9 streetlights

By working with other leaders in electric transportation, providing an inclusive open architecture and listening closely, Coulomb is providing infrastructure needed to fuel the electric vehicle industry of the 21st century.

This is a guest contribution by Richard Lowenthal, CEO of electric vehicle ChargePoint manufacturer Coulomb Technologies. Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0