The future of electric utilities – change and disruption ahead
The utilities industry has typically been change averse, and often for good reasons, but with the technological advances of the past few years, the low carbon imperative, and pressure from customers, utilities are going to have to figure out how to disrupt their business, or they will themselves be disrupted. I gave the opening keynote […]
IBM to increase the amount of renewable electricity it procures
After returning from IBM’s InterConnect conference recently we chided IBM for their aping of Amazon’s radical opaqueness concerning their cloud emissions, and their lack of innovation concerning renewables. However, some better news emerged in the last few days. The Whitehouse last week hosted a roundtable of some of the largest Federal suppliers to discuss their […]
The coming together of the Internet of Things and Smart Grids
I was asked to speak at the recent SAP TechEd && d-code (yes, two ampersands, that’s the branding, not a typo) on the topic of the Internet of Things and Energy. This is a curious space, because, while the Internet of Things is all the rage now in the consumer space, the New Black, as […]
Japan’s Tsunami Disaster Brings Commodity and Product Shortages
Based on our survey of a wide range of secondary sources, it appears that commodity and product shortages have already hit Japan and will soon spread into Asia and potentially the rest of the world. For many commodities, suppliers…
Understanding the Smart Grid – my TreeHugger interview
Jaymi Heimbuch contacted me recently to ask if I’d agree to be interviewed for a TreeHugger article she was planning to write on Smart Grids. “Love to”, I said. Jaymi sent on the questions, I replied and today she posted the interview on TreeHugger. Here are the questions and my answers: TH: What’s the biggest […]
EV Not-So-Quick Recharging
EV proponents seriously underestimate the seriousness of the battery recharging time element and the obstacle it will become to establishing large fleets of EVs on American roads. The EV industry has established a reality distortion field in order to avoid the unpleasantness of a fact that impairs their marketplace agenda and the media has more […]
It is surprisingly easy to leave yourself open to claims of Greenwashing!
Companies need to take a lot of care when making Green claims. The whole Green energy space is massively complex and it is surprisingly easy to leave yourself open to claims of Greenwashing. What do I mean? Well, take the Irish energy sector, for example. Anyone who generates electricity in Ireland, which is to be […]
GigaOM’s GreenNet 2010
Last week I had the opportunity to attend GigaOM’s GreenNet 2010 event, which was looking at how energy solutions are powering a new wave of innovation in Silicon Valley.
I was pleased to see that Katie had focused a good amount of the agenda and speaker slots for talks given by regulators and public utility officials. […]
Friday Morning Green Numbers round-up 04/09/2010
Iowa, Texas tops [US] in wind power efforts Iowa and Texas lead the nation in wind energy efforts, according to the annual report released Thursday from the American Wind Energy Association. Iowa claims the title for the state with the largest percentage of electricity from wind energy. As of the end of 2009, over 14 […]
When will we have full Smart Grid deployments?
Photo credit mckaysavage Despite a lot of talk and some high profile trials the day we have ubiquitous full Smart Grids is still a long way off. I attended the Smart Grids Europe conference in Amsterdam this week. It was a great conference, I met a ton of interesting people and had some fascinating conversations. […]
