Today's Top Stories
1. Southern Company: Breeding success
2. USVI utilizing grass to create renewable energy
3. CPUC approves lower utility rate of return
4. U.S., Israel partner on energy projects
5. Fraunhofer gets $12M for solar plug-and-play technology Editor's Corner: Publishing Holiday Also Noted: University TechWatch
Spotlight On... Pacific Gas and Electric starts building gas control center
IBM hiring 500 big data workers and much more...  | | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Harvesting energy: The power of tornadoes
AVEtec has been awarded an approximately $350,000 grant from Breakout Labs and the Thiel Foundation to promote innovation in science and technology, in this case harnessing clean energy. AVEtec's proposal is to harness the power of atmospheric vortexes (tornadoes). Article HVDC sparks transmission growth in Eastern U.S.
Has the day finally arrived for widespread adoption of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission? As the U.S. electric grid continues to age, specifically in the Eastern Interconnect, there is an emerging need for additional transmission. Feature News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Texas to explore smart meter opt-out
2. Order 1000 leaves some transmission problems unsolved
3. Managing huge data with smart meters
| This week's sponsor is SmartGrid Careers. |  | | Market Your Open Smart Grid Career Opportunities to 17K Qualified Smart Grid Professionals! |
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Publishing Holiday
The editors will be taking a publishing holiday through January 2, 2013. We'll resume our normal industry coverage then. In the meantime, enjoy the holidays and have a safe, healthy and happy new year. – Barb |
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Today's Top News 1. Southern Company: Breeding success
Southern Company, under the direction of Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning, has been named the number one electric utility in North America by Electric Light & Power magazine. Fanning has worked for Southern Company for more than 30 years in 15 different positions in eight different business units. His expertise in finance, strategy, international business development and technology have definitely paid off for the utility. "[Fanning] and his employees drove the fourth-largest utility in the United States to achieve high rankings in market capitalization, innovation, construction, job creation and customer satisfaction reports, despite expected coal plant retirements next year and tough political and economic times," Teresa Hansen, Electric Light & Power editor in chief said in a statement. Fanning's philosophy is that lasting companies must commit to the community, embrace technology and transform themselves to meet customers' needs. A tribute to that philosophy, Southern Company celebrated its 100th anniversary on Janauary 5, 2012. "I attribute the company's long-term success and positive impact on the community to our culture of sustainable innovation," said Fanning. "Efforts that exemplify sustainability through innovation touch every aspect of Southern Company's business." Read the entire article online at FierceEnergy. Read more about: Southern Company
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| This week's sponsor is Zpryme. |  | Zpryme's Smart Grid Insights and FierceSmartGrid are conducting a survey to assess the current sentiment and outlook for the Smart Grid industry on a monthly basis. We would like to invite utility, energy, and Smart Grid executives to participate in this month's survey. Click here to take the survey.
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2. USVI utilizing grass to create renewable energy
The St. Croix Public Services Commission (PSC) has approved Tibbar Energy's facility design for a 6 MW anaerobic power plant as the source of continuously renewable green energy fuel. The generator uses Viaspace's proprietary Giant King Grass, with the goal of growing 1,500 acres of hybrid Giant King Grass and converting it to biofuel for generating electricity.  | | Credit: GlobeNewswire | The biomass project offers a sustainable outlet for the U.S. Virgin Islands' (USVI) green waste through composting, which can then be used as a fertilizer for agricultural operations. The anaerobic digestion operation also offers a potential renewable outlet for the island's food waste. Prior to the approval, Tibbar Energy representatives explained that Giant King Grass is a fast-growing, high yield grass that is neither genetically modified nor invasive. The grass does not compete with other crops, is similar to sugar cane, and uses high-nutrient fertilizer water which will not deplete the soil, they said. Tibbar hopes to harvest 500 to 600 tons of Giant King Grass per day, running the grass through an anaerobic generator which can produce up to seven kilowatts per hour. Biomass projects utilizing energy crops in anaerobic digestion to create renewable electricity have been used successfully in thousands European locations. Tibbar has been working closely with the USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Department of Labor, Waste Management Authority, Water and Power Authority, Department of Agriculture, Public Works Commission, Public Services Commission, Virgin Islands Energy Office, Farmers Cooperative, and St. Croix Environmental Association. A strategic alliance with Danish biogas company, Renew Energy, will allow Tibbar to capitalize on the company's vast experience in the design and operation of these systems across Europe. Power could begin production by January of 2014. For more:
- see this article Read more about: renewable electricity, Renew Energy
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3. CPUC approves lower utility rate of return
California's largest investor-owned utilities will face lower allowable return on equity (ROE) in 2013 as a result yesterday's decision by state energy regulators. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decision affects Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Company, and San Diego Gas and Electric. Required revenue reductions range from $22 million to $237 million, with return on common equity hovering around 10 percent. The ruling will pad customer wallets, who will save between $0.38 and $1.52 per month. CPUC's independent Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) praised the reductions. "The Commission's decision on the utilities' Cost of Capital case is fair and reasonable, and more in line with the average utility ROE around the nation," said Joe Como, DRA's acting director, in a release. "Utility customers will benefit from sharing in declining Cost of Capital rates in the current market." CPUC Commissioner Mark Ferron noted that the decision is designed to spur infrastructure growth within the state and balance the need for utilities to remain profitable with the need to invest. For more:
-see the proposal Read more about: California Public Utilities Commission
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4. U.S., Israel partner on energy projects
As part of a cooperative effort, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Israel's Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MEW) have selected four projects to receive $3.5 million under the 2012 Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program. Each project addresses energy challenges and opportunities of interest to both countries, specifically the commercialization of clean energy, and will leverage private sector cost-share for a total project value of more than $10 million. "In a global market which is becoming increasingly challenging for young renewable energy companies, partnering is critical to accelerate development and reduce risks," said Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, executive director with BIRD. The projects include: - A Hydrogen-Halogen Regenerative Fuel Cell utilizing a flexible architecture that provides low cost, transportable, modular energy storage capability
- High-energy, rechargeable magnesiusm batteries, which are superior to Li-ion technology in size, weight, lifetime and cost
- A concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system, based on an innovative, actively-cooled CPV module
- Electricity producing solar windows of high transparency and insulation.
For more:
- see this article Read more about: US Department of Energy
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5. Fraunhofer gets $12M for solar plug-and-play technology
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has chosen the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) to receive funding from the SunShot Initiative, a national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by 202. The five-year, $11.7 million research project will allow CSE to create technologies, components, systems, and standards that reduce the cost of residential solar. The aim is to develop "plug-and-play" solar photovoltaic systems. The pre-configured systems can be selected, purchased, installed and commissioned by a homeowner within one day. This project is part of a larger $21 million DOE investment aimed at developing technology solutions that reduce the "soft" costs of residential solar PV systems – the non-module hardware costs that account for a majority of the total cost of residential systems, and represent a barrier to wider adoption of solar power in the United States. Removing soft costs will make residential solar PV systems more cost competitive and attractive to homeowners, paving the way for a large new market for United States solar power production. For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
DOE expands research to lower solar costs
ORNL researching tech to lower solar costs Read more about: US Department of Energy
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SPOTLIGHT ON... Pacific Gas and Electric starts building gas control center Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has started construction on a state-of-the-art gas control center. PG&E will use it to monitor the safe and reliable operation of its 6,700 miles of transmission pipeline and 42,000 miles of smaller-diameter distribution mains. The center is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2013. Article >IBM hiring 500 big data workers. Article
>Mobile app revenues skyrocket. Article
>Unlocking value from smart meters. Webinar
>Customer analytics slow to catch on. Article > White paper: Cyber Security and the Energy Sector Utilities face many security challenges today. AT&T and Sierra Wireless are working together to provide strong and proven security technologies enabling utilities with a secure and flexible two-way communications infrastructure to connect and communicate in real time. Download now. > Survey: Take the Smart Grid Index Survey Zpryme's Smart Grid Insights and FierceSmartGrid are conducting a survey to assess the current sentiment and outlook for the Smart Grid industry on a monthly basis. We would like to invite utility, energy, and Smart Grid executives to participate in this month's survey. Click here to take the survey. > Reach Over 17K Smart Grid Professionals for $249! Market your open Smart Grid career opportunities to over 17,000 qualified Smart Grid candidates. Our career marketing package leverages a powerful combination of e-mail marketing, social media promotion and visibility to over 4,500 targeted unique site visitors every month! www.smartgridcareers.com | |
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