Category Archives: energy efficiency

Itron (ITRI) Releases OpenWay(R) Announces Release Of Improved OpenWay Collection Engine

Itron announced on Thursday that is has just released an improved version of its OpenWay Collection Engine, with better security features. The current version of OpenWay does comply with the security guidelines issued by American National Standards Institute. However, the new version exceeds these security requirements to provide security that meets the standards of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) "Critical Cyber Asset" requirements as well as the … Read the rest

Echelon (ELON) Now A Member Of The Demand Response And Smart Grid Coalition

Echelon just announced that it has joined the Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition, an industry trade association. The coalition’s goal is to raise awareness of the benefits that demand-response systems and smart grid technologies can offer.

Echelon’s VP of Networked Energy Services (NES) Sales, Jim Andrus, commented on the significance of the coalition in a company press release:

"At a time when the Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of the nation’s

Read the rest

Green Energy Details of Economic Stimulus Package

Now that Congress has approved the economic stimulus package (aka the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) with Obama expected to sign it into law on Tuesday I thought I’d give a run down of what’s in this bill related to green energy initiatives. 

Overall, nearly 10% of the entire bill provides funding and tax credits for green energy related projects.

* $11 billion in spending and loan guarantees to build a “smart grid” to move … Read the rest

Google’s (GOOG) Energy Efficiency Strategy

There’s a good piece over at Portfolio.com about Google’s green energy initiatives and collaboration with GE.  Google’s goal is to make every home energy efficient so that appliances know when to power up and down while heating and cooling respond automatically to the prices in energy.  Before that can happen big time upgrades must happen in the transmission lines which are horribly outdated and inefficient.

Google aims to do with energy what it’s done for … Read the rest

IBM (IBM) Hired To Create Malta’s Smart Grid System

IBM has been hired by 2 Maltese companies, Enemalta Corporation and Water Services Corporation, to design and install a smart grid for the entire nation. Under the terms of the 70 million euro agreement, IBM will create a smart grid system to manage electricity and water use, replace the country’s analog meters with smart meters, and integrate the utility systems to allow for remote monitoring and management. The major benefits of the system include … Read the rest

Wal Mart (WMT) Green Initiatives Paying Dividends

Wal Mart (WMT) has been one of a handful of large US corporations taking the lead in retooling their business to be more lean, mean and green.  According to the NY Times, Wal Mart (WMT) has said it’s improved the fuel efficiency of its fleet by 25% since 2005 and has plans to test the use of cooking grease from its delis for truck fuel.  The company credits gains in fuel efficiency to smarter … Read the rest

EnerNOC (ENOC) Gets 8 Year Demand Response Contract With Xcel Energy (XEL)

EnerNoc (ENOC) continues to expand its demand response portfolio.  About a week ago the company announced a deal with the City of Boston.

“The City of Boston is a hub of clean tech innovation, and EnerNOC is a shining example of Boston-based companies that are making an impact on the way the world uses energy. Demand response allows the City to implement smart energy saving measures and make an immediate contribution to the overall reliability … Read the rest