Some interesting news recently went unnoticed. Indeed, last month, Russia unveiled a massive energy efficiency plan as the country wastes as much energy as the French economy consumes.

Soviet-era buildings and factories completely lack energy efficiency as they were built as cheaply as possible to answer the demands of the government at that time.

But this might soon change. The Moscow Times (more…)

Sipco LLC (Sipco) is an Atlanta, Georgia-based developer of wireless mesh technology. In a previous post, I wrote about Sipco’s patent infringement suit targeting Florida Power & Light and its smart grid rollout in Miami-Dade County.

Last month Sipco sued various companies that offer smart meters, lighting products, home and building automation systems and (more…)

Microgrids may be a hot topic among those forecasting key future trends shaping the world’s energy infrastructure, but few significant state-of-the-art commercial microgrids are actually up and running in North America, the world’s leading market for microgrids. One (more…)

There’s a product coming to your home that promises to lower your electricity and water bills, make your home more energy efficient and help the planet.

But there are questions about its accuracy, doubts about whether you’ll be able to easily understand it or find it of much use, and other questions about whether it will (more…)

Recent announcements illustrate that battle lines are forming over who, what, and how home energy management will be offered to consumers. Demand-responsive homes that throttle their electricity consumption based on the real-time generation capacity are key to the smart grid vision of distributed renewable and PHEVs. The big question is: who will entice pesky (more…)

I recently wrote a story on the growing popularity of so-called smart appliances that link into utility’s smart grid programs, allowing consumers to manage and cut down on their own power use.

By the end of this year, energy customers in much of Texas can expect the installation of close to 700,000 advanced smart electric meters and corresponding communications systems.   Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, the state’s largest utility company, and Landis+Gyr, a developer of energy management systems, have already installed more than 350,000 smart meters in Texas.

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The high tech industry will play a significant role in the battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as long as the Internet remains a level playing field. The opportunities for software companies to innovate in the energy generation and energy efficiency sectors are substantial if the priority of traffic over the Internet remains neutral (i.e., the FCC adopts net neutrality rules).

The smart grid is the main prerequisite to the Internet’s involvement in energy. The Obama Administration recently announced $3.4 billion in the development of the smart grid and related technologies. Much of these funds went directly to utilities to provide smart meters in homes and businesses. Southern California Edison has already started its rollout of smart meters under a program called SmartConnect; they hope to have 5 million smart meters active by 2012.

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Ford Motor Company has developed an intelligent charging system that previews how its production vehicles will interact with the grid. The unnamed system enables all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners to restrict charging to when electricity prices fall below a certain threshold, or even “when the grid is using only renewable energy such as wind or solar power,” according to Ford.

Being able to drive “emissions free” could be a huge selling point for the upscale and eco-minded early adopters who will be buying EVs and plug-in hybrids during the next few years. There’s a natural synergy for customers to put solar on their homes and buy hybrids/EVs, who can then drive free of fossil fuel guilt.

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