Green Business

Seven Up and Coming Smart Grid Software Companies to Watch

The Smart Grid will require substantial information processing, storage and data mining resources. An entire new software sector is rising to meet the challenges and fill the many new needs opened up by its arrival. Spending on the smart grid is estimated to be $165 billion over the next 20 years (Source: EPRI) and a good portion of this will be on software and data services. Here is a list of seven of the up and coming software companies that are actively offering software for the Smart Grid, for Smart Meters, for Power Analytics, for systems focused on improving the energy efficiency of the grid, and for energy management systems for homes and businesses tied to Smart Grid networks and designed to operate with it.

Duckweed Turns Pig Poop into Biofuel

Researchers from North Carolina State University have shown that Duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant much loved by Ducks can thrive in the effluent waste water produced by large feedlots, such as hog farming operations and potentially in urban sewage water as well. This hardworking little plant not only cleans the waste water of the excess nutrients, but in the process it produces large quantities of valuable starchy biomass. Biomas that can be harvested and used to produce ethonol in the same types of facilities that are currently being used to make ethanol from corn starch.

Internship Spotlight: Ceres Corporate Social Responsibility Summer Internship – Update: This Postion has Been Filled

Ceres is seeking a small number of dynamic, committed interns who would find it exciting to be at the center of one of the most effective corporate social responsibility groups in the world. Ceres interns support program staff working with a wide variety of constituents within the Ceres network: environmental activists, investors, funders, and corporations. While providing some administrative support, interns will primarily work in one of the following areas using skills in research, project coordination, IT and communications.

Smart Meters Open Up New Software Sector

Smart meters, which are meters that are hooked up to a network so that they can deliver information about current usage in a timely manner, are rapidly becoming ubiquitous. Smart meters will enable real time energy decisions in response to current conditions. They form a critical cornerstone of the smart grid; in fact in many ways they are the “smart” in the smart grid. This opens up a whole slew of new opportunities for smart software developers and smart entrepreneurs [no pun intended] to build the software applications and services to support and to add value to these new smart networked grids. What kinds of software opportunities exist in this newly opening sector?

Green Grid Bill Introduced in Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has introduced legislation to support president Obama’s vision of a green grid. The Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act will promote investments in transmission to facilitate access to renewable power, and also establish a streamlined planning and siting process for transmission lines. This legislation will make it easier for renewable energy suppliers to deliver clean energy from the often remote areas where it is harnessed to major population centers across the country.

How Software Will Help Build the Green Cloud

Many people in the software industry have heard the buzzword cloud computing. Cloud computing promises to revolutionize how computing is done and huge investments are being made by the major players in the industry to stake out a portion of this sector. The infrastructure that underlies the cloud is a massive energy consumer. What is needed is for the idea of a green cloud to also catch on within the industry. A green cloud is cloud computing that uses intelligent power management and cooling to minimize its energy needs for some given level of service.

Eleven Firms Dropped From NASDAQs Clean Edge Green Energy Index

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and Clean Edge Inc. have announced the results of their semi-annual review of the Nasdaq Clean Edge Green Energy Index, which will become effective with the market open on Monday, March 23, 2009. One company is added while 11 are dropped from the indice.

2009 Will be a Year of Consolidation in Solar

After a run of some years of heady double digit growth the Solar PV sector in the US has hit a period of slower growth in which some of the weaker players are being shaken out of the market. This year will be characterized by consolidation as more successful firms and better capitalized firms build their market share and absorb weaker players. This shakeout was inevitable and is natural, but it was undoubtedly triggered by the financial crash of late 2008 coupled with the bursting of the oil futures speculative bubble and the temporary collapse in prices on the oil spot markets.

The Green Economy, What Does it Mean?

What is the green economy? It promises a future more harmonious with nature, more attuned to the kind of tomorrow that is lying ahead and it also projects a sense of hopefulness and prosperity. The green economy is a rapidly growing and increasingly important sector in the overall economy generating more than a trillion dollars in revenue and employing many millions of people. It embraces such diverse industries as renewable energy production and electric energy distribution, energy efficiency and storage, organic agriculture, green transportation and green building.