Quite a bit is happening in the smart grid sector. In this post I quickly look at the breaking announcement by Vice President Joe Biden of more than $3.3 billion in stimulus funding for grants to drive the rollout of a nationwide electrical smart grid.
I continue to follow the hacking of the grid story and try to give some various perspectives on this issue and what is being done about it.
Finally I post on how the growing adoption of renewable energy like solar and wind will require the grid to evolve into a much smarter, robust system and to incorporate systems for storing transient excess energy.
The Report can be purchased as part of a subscription to Progressive Investor or separately for $89. Progressive Investor is a monthly newsletter that guides investors and analysts toward green investments. Published by SustainableBusiness.com, it covers all green business sectors, including renewable energy, green building and healthy lifestyle. You can read an excerpt of the Report on SustainableBusiness.com. It is an in-depth interview with Patrick McVeigh, president of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, a green/social portfolio management firm. Progressive Investor talked with him about his impression of market conditions, the impact of the stimulus plan on cleantech, and how they are managing porfolios under these circumstances. You can also read the sample article, The Green Investment Landscape.
The Smart Grid promises to make our energy (and also water and sewage systems) more efficient, robust and responsive by building a paired parallel information and control network onto the existing distribution networks. However hooking up the grid’s multitude of component units to a network also opens up the potential for the grid to be hacked — in much the same way anything that is exposed to the internet can be hacked.
The Clean Technology Trade Alliance will create green jobs by helping identify and grow clean tech businesses. Headquartered in the Seattle area, CTTA will focus on identifying US clean technology companies, profiling their products and services and provide a global sales force to identify and qualify business opportunities for its member companies.
Offshore Wind Gets Major Boost with announcement by President Obama that the Department of the Interior has finalized a long-awaited framework for renewable energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Wind energy continues rapid growth according to new report from the American Wind Energy Association. The US has surpassed 25 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind energy capacity in 2008. Construction of a new wind farm has begun in Texas. Seatle firm proposes floating offshore wind farms.
The Northeast Green Building Conference 2009, the leading Green building educational event in Upstate New York, takes place this Thursday and Friday, April 23-24, at the Clarion Hotel, 3 Watervliet Avenue Ext., Albany.
There are more products claiming to be green on the shelves of stores these days, however those ‘all-natural’ and ‘organic’ products are likely committing at least one of the Seven Sins of Greenwashing, by not telling the complete truth. Between 2007 and 2009, the in-store availability of so-called ‘green’ products has increased between 40% and 176%, with 98% of products surveyed still committing at least one Sin of Greenwashing, according to a report on the Seven Sins of Greenwashing released last week by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing.
The Cleantech Group™, founders of the clean technology investment category and providers of global market research and other services for the clean technology ecosystem, recently announced that it is making its 2008 Annual Review & 4Q08 Investment Monitor available for free download to celebrate Earth Day 2009. For one week only, this report will be available to non-members to dramatically illustrate how technology is being used to save our planet and its natural resources.
A new study finds that a “Living Building,” a building that generates its own power, as well as cleans and reuses its water is the most financially responsible design approach to new construction in the mid to long term. Building that are only slightly green may end up costing more in ten years than a building that is designed and built as high performance as is currently possible. Living Buildings offer significantly larger savings in water and energy costs, and cost less to construct than previously believed. Study participants include leading design, engineering, building research, construction and development firms.
