Original source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/09/07/eco.nano.web/index.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Nanofluid developed by IT researchers could lead to more efficient computer servers
• Using nanofluid would reduce energy needed to cool vast server farms
• Iceland with geothermal energy has been proposed as good natural site for server farms

(CNN) — The internet may soon be a greener place thanks to new research that looks set to slash the carbon footprint of our surfing by introducing nanotechnology to computer servers.

Computer servers are often housed in giant warehouses, known as “server farms” and generate huge amounts of heat, which in turn requires huge amounts of power to fuel cooling systems.

Researchers from Sweden’s Institute of Technology have discovered that adding some nanoparticles to water can improve its ability to conduct heat by around 60 percent. This nanofluid could then be used in cooling computer servers and reduce the total amount of energy needed to keep temperatures down.

“We have had some really significant successes,” Mamoun Muhammed, Sweden’s Institute of Technology, told CNN.

So far those nanoparticles showing most potential are oxides of metals like zinc and copper, but carbon nanotubes are also being tested.

“What we are using are nanofluids, which are fluids engineered to contain nanoparticles dispersed in such a way that the liquid’s capability to move heat is much enhanced compared to normal cooling fluids,” said Muhammed. Read more

Original source: http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/10/09/supervisors-move-forward-waste-energy-project

Sep 4 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Rick Longley Orland Press Register, Calif.

Glenn County approved a memorandum of understanding this week in support of a proposed solid waste conversion facility to be built east of Orland.

However, the potential foreclosure of the site property almost derailed the agreement, until supervisors were assured it likely would not occur and the agreement could be canceled if the owner were unable to fulfill her obligations.

Kara Baker of KVB, Inc. wants to build the conversion center on acreage her family owns off Highway 32 about five miles east of town near Stony Creek in the Hamilton City area.

The facility would convert solid waste from the county’s waste stream into a usable product, and extract recyclable materials so they would not go into the landfill, Supervisor Leigh McDaniel said.

It would use technology to make these items into “green” products or energy sources and should operate at 85 percent efficiency, he said, without creating pollution or troubling the neighbors.

“Do we follow our philosophy of green technology and waste management?” McDaniel asked.

“We either start this now or wait 50 years when it becomes a mandate. I say start it now.” Read more

By JOE McDONALD  The Associated Press Wednesday, September 8, 2010; 6:36 AM

Original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090801425.html

BEIJING — Chinese steel mills and mobile phone factories are being idled and thousands of homes in one area are doing without electricity as local governments order power cuts to meet energy-saving targets set by Beijing.

Rolling blackouts and enforced power cuts are affecting key industrial areas. The prosperous eastern city of Taizhou turned off street lights and ordered hotels and shopping malls to cut power use. In Anping County southwest of Beijing, an area known as China’s wire-manufacturing capital, thousands of factories and homes have endured daylong blackouts over the past two weeks.

“We can’t meet deadlines for some orders and will have to pay penalties,” said Han Hongmai, general manager of Anping’s Jintai Metal Wire Co. “At home we can’t use the toilet” on blackout days due to lack of power for water pumps, he said.

While the U.S. and Europe struggle with flagging economies, the power outages are symptomatic of China’s torrid growth and officials’ capricious use of their powers to meet the authoritarian government’s goals.

China’s economic expansion, which hit 10.3 percent in the latest quarter, blew holes in government efforts to curb surging energy demand, pollution and emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Beijing told local leaders to clamp down and stepped up pressure by sending inspectors to see the order was carried out.

“You could say local governments are trying to blackmail the central government: If you order me to do something I can’t deliver, I will pass on the pressure to ordinary people,” said Yang Ailun, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace China.  Read more

Kate Rowland | Sep 06, 2010

Original source: http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/10/09/addressing-cyber-security-needs-smart-grid

Announced right on the cusp of Labor Day weekend, it didn’t make much of a splash in the news. But it will, once we’ve all begun to digest the information contained in the three-volume, 577-page report, Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, released last Thursday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Smart Grid Interoperability Panel – Cyber Security Working Group (SGIP-CSWG).

The volumes are broken down as follows: Vol. 1, Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy, Architecture, and High-Level Requirements; Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security: Vol. 2, Privacy and the Smart Grid; and Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security: Vol. 3, Supportive Analyses and References.

These initial guidelines, produced by a 450-member working group, are intended to facilitate organization-specific smart grid cyber security strategies focused on prevention, detection, response and recovery.  As well, they are “intended primarily for individuals and organizations responsible for addressing cyber security for Smart Grid systems and the constituent subsystems of hardware and software components,” according the first volume’s executive summary notes.

“Given the widespread and growing importance of the electric infrastructure in the U.S. economy, these individuals and organizations comprise a large and diverse group. It includes vendors of energy information and management services, equipment manufacturers, utilities, system operators, regulators, researchers, and network specialists.

“In addition, the guidelines have been drafted to incorporate the perspectives of three primary industries converging on opportunities enabled by the emerging Smart Grid-utilities and other businesses in the electric power sector, the information technology industry, and the telecommunications sector.” Read more

By Kafia A. Hosh  Washington Post Staff Writer  Tuesday, September 7, 2010; B01

Original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/06/AR2010090603576.html

On a recent morning last month, a Dominion Power crew made the bumpy ride to a damaged transmission line in Fauquier County, bouncing in a bucket truck along the makeshift dirt and gravel road. They stopped near a 150-foot tower in a clearing filled with rocks, mud and branches.

The crew is among an exclusive group of linemen who work on energized power lines. Dominion’s 40 transmission linemen are all trained in the work, referred to as barehanding because the crews wear special suits and gloves that allow them to touch the powered lines. Fewer than 20 utilities out of about 200 in the nation have barehanding teams.

Dominion’s crews repair high-voltage transmission lines that carry electricity into substations and then into smaller distribution lines that power homes, businesses and public buildings. Millions of customers across the country benefit, including high-profile clients such as the Department of Homeland Security and several Northern Virginia data centers responsible for half of the world’s Internet traffic.

Barehanding is “a huge part of being able to keep our customers from being exposed to an outage,” said Wade Bunn, manager of Dominion’s transmission line crews. “That is why we try to work on as many of these energized lines as possible.” Read more

Phil Carson | Sep 03, 2010

Original source: http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/10/09/smart-meters-accuracy-and-anger

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu generated news last week when he announced that two million smart meters had been installed nationally, half-funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

That sparked an email to an Internet forum from Chris King, chief regulatory officer for eMeter, which reflected that ARRA-funded meters are a fraction of the 16.5 million meters installed so far nationally. According to King’s data, another 34 million meter installations are in progress.

King’s email, in turn, sparked a thought at my end.

Chu’s announcement landed right between two related events: news out of Texas in mid-August and California last week that independent analyses found smart meters—the subject of anger and allegations—to be accurate, as are the backend systems involved. It’s noteworthy that something on the order of 1,000 or so complaints each in Texas and in California—out of more than 1.3 million meters installed by Oncor in Texas and a staggering 6.3 million meters installed by Pacific Gas & Electric in California—managed to become national stories.

To be sure, occasional problems also arose when an accurate smart meter replaced an aging, inaccurate electromagnetic meter. But for the most part, weather, rate hikes and personal usage patterns were responsible for spikes in billing.

Both situations appeared to underscore the need for proactive outreach by utilities to prepare their customers for meters and for improvements in complaint handling. Once local politicians grabbed the issue and ran with it, media followed and the resulting stories got legs. That reflects the political mantra that if you don’t define yourself, others will do it for you, to your detriment.

So, my grand thought—appallingly obvious, now that I write it out: Read more

Regulatory teamwork–A closer look at the Smart Grid Collaborative

Published In: Intelligent Utility Magazine July/August 2010    Joe Kovacs

Original source: http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/federal-state-smarts

AS THE ELECTRIC GRID CONTINUES TO evolve, the roles of state and federal government in driving smart initiatives is definitely shifting. One state regulator leading the collaborative approach is Garry Brown, chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission and of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ (NARUC’s) Committee on Electricity.

Brown has also been a member of the NARUC-Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Smart Grid Collaborative since its inception in February 2008. Intelligent Utility recently interviewed him about federal and state collaboration.

INTELLIGENT UTILITY In the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Congress asked the Department of Energy to create a smart grid advisory committee. Was the Smart Grid Collaborative a result of that legislation?

BROWN In early 2008, out of recognition among federal and state regulators that our power infrastructure was moving toward smart grid, we came together to identify and increase our understanding of a variety of smart gird issues-technology, interoperability standards, cyber security, to name a few. NARUC and FERC believed a focused collaborative would position us as a source of information for public and private sector entities. It was largely through our desire for ongoing communications and knowledge sharing that we came together, not because of legislation.

INTELLIGENT UTILITY So what does the Smart Grid Collaborative do?  Read more

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN  September 3, 2010

Original source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/realestate/05zone.html?_r=1&ref=energy-environment

HERE’S an idea: Buy a house, and make money off the investment. Guaranteed. So long as the sun keeps coming up.

That is the pitch being made at River Pointe, an age-restricted community in Manchester where PulteGroup Inc. is installing, as a standard feature in each house, solar technology that earns energy credits.

PulteGroup, a company based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is not the only builder offering solar-equipped homes in New Jersey. But it is among the first to start offering solar units as a standard feature in every house in a development, and to tot up the ways that buyers can earn as much as $30,000 over 15 years.

Those earnings will come in four ways, according to Paul Schneier, the president of the company’s metropolitan New York and New Jersey division: savings of more than half on electricity bills, a onetime federal tax rebate of at least $6,000, an annual break on property taxes, and income from the sale of the credits back to utility companies. Read more

Sep 6 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Abbe Smith New Haven Register, Conn.

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16874983

Three lucky locations in the city are slated to receive energy-saving solar panel systems in the near future.

“Since there is no cost to the city … this is really a win,” said city Director of Sustainability Christine Eppstein Tang.

The panels are being provided to the city by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund as part of the Connecticut Clean Energy Options program, which the city participates in. Tang said New Haven has the highest number of people signed up for the program — a total of 1,300 residents.

The Clean Energy Options program allows residents and businesses to sign up for clean electricity through their local utility.

Last week, the aldermanic City Services and Environmental Policy approved accepting the gift, and the matter now goes before the full Board of Aldermen for final action.

The three sites in line for solar panels are the Fair Haven Library, the caretaker’s cottage at Lighthouse Point Park and Long Wharf pier building.

The three solar panel systems are worth a total of $140,000 and could save the city an estimated $5,000 to $6,000 a year in energy costs. Read more

Sep 3 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Jen Lynds Bangor Daily News, Maine

Original souce: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16863652

A significant investment is expected to pay even bigger dividends for Northern Maine Community College, as the Presque Isle college is slated to benefit from a huge push to make the campus more green.

The college has undertaken several projects in recent months designed to reduce both energy costs and the campus’s carbon footprint. The college has invested more than $2.2 million in the effort, and the scope of completed work includes building and lighting upgrades, mechanical renovations and insulation, and building controls installation.

Tim Crowley, president of NMCC, said Thursday that making the college more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly has been a major priority over the past few years. Crowley said the investments NMCC has made in its buildings and around campus “will pay dividends for years to come.”

The college has entered into a performance contract with Honeywell to upgrade existing facilities. The arrangement, approved by the Maine Community College System last year, allowed NMCC to borrow $1.36 million from the system to initiate energy conservation work on campus. Read more

Sep 5 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Dave Choate Portsmouth Herald, N.H.

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16868863

The wind energy movement for local residents doesn’t have much wind behind it.

Several Seacoast towns have ordinances that permit residential wind turbines, and on paper, it’s an idea worth mulling. It’s an opportunity to save money over the long haul while doing something environmentally friendly. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, enough power is produced in the country by wind turbines to provide electricity for 9.7 million homes and has been around for decades, so it’s not an unknown technology.

But with only a handful of exceptions, the ordinances and the state law that spawned them has not yielded returns. The reasons are myriad, but many people interviewed last week said a combination of startup costs and lack of viable land and wind speeds made it difficult for towns like Portsmouth, Greenland and Rye, none of which have seen residential applications.

Suzanne Sayer, a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power in Maine, has extensive experience working with wind turbines. She gave two reasons why it hasn’t caught on for residents.

“It’s not cost effective, and there’s no wind,” she said. Read more

By John Woolfolk jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com Posted: 09/03/2010 09:00:32 PM PDT  Updated: 09/04/2010 03:40:48 AM PDT

Original source: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15989199

The power was back on in a matter of hours, but that’s been little comfort to residents of a San Jose neighborhood whose appliances got fried last week when PG&E crews tried to fix a transformer blowout.

As the mercury hit 94 degrees Thursday inside his Turnberry Place home, Paul Mein wondered when he’ll see any money from the utility to replace his air conditioner, radio, microwave oven and garage door opener.

“We have to go out to eat, because we can’t stand it in the house,” Mein said.

PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman said the utility apologizes for the inconvenience. A representative distributed claim forms to half a dozen residents so they could file to reclaim costs of replacing damaged appliances, he said. The utility tries to resolve claims in 30 days, Nauman added, but it sometimes can take longer.

But residents said a woman representing the utility told them it could take several months to get repaid.

“This is not our fault,” Mein said. “The air conditioner is going to cost a good chunk of money. I don’t know what they expect people to do. People don’t have the money to go out and buy all this stuff.”

The problem started at 12:41 a.m. Aug. 26, when an underground transformer failed and cut power to 126 homes on Turnberry Place and Gaundabert Lane near Gunderson High School. A transformer reduces the high voltage from power distribution lines to service levels for household use.

PG&E crews installed a  replacement, but “almost immediately, we realized there was a problem with the new transformer,” Nauman said. The device apparently malfunctioned and sent a power surge into the residents’ homes. Read more