Smart grid

Chip giant Intel procured over 1,493 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2010.

That's according to a survey of over 1,000 companies that was conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in conjunction with wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems.

The index developed from this new survey is called the Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX). (For a PDF of the white paper on the survey, click here.) For its inaugural release the CREX released rankings of companies based on the amount of renewable energy they procured both in 2009 and 2010.

For 2010, the top five companies with the largest renewable electricity procurement were: Intel, clothing retailer Kohl's, Hong Kong electric company CLP Holdings, supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, and the Dutch telecom Koninklijke KPN.

For 2009, the ranking was Deutsche Telekom, Intel, PepsiCo, BT Group, and clothing retailer Kohl's.

Keep in mind that no one is suggesting these companies are gleaning electricity directly from local solar or wind farms. While some companies do directly support renewable-energy projects, over 80 percent of the renewable electricity procured by the companies surveyed was purchased in the form of renewable electricity credits (RECs).

And while Intel procured the most renewable electricity in 2010 at over 1,493 gigawatt-hours, on a percentage basis it's actually Kohl's that wins. In 2010 the retailer purchased so many RECs, it statistically can say it garnered 100.4 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

In conjunction with the CREX, Vestas also had TNS/Gallup conduct a survey on wind energy procurement in particular.

When it comes to wind, Whole Foods tops the list. The supermarket chain gets 100 percent of its electricity from wind energy, followed by North American bank Toronto-Dominion Bank at 78 percent, and software giant Adobe Systems at 65 percent, according to the Global Consumer Wind Study 2011.

More statistics and rankings of companies by industry can be found in Appendix D (page 30) of the CREX white paper (PDF) released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Vestas.… Read more

The maker of the PowerCost Monitor, seeking alternatives to discontinued energy-monitoring applications from Microsoft and Google, today said that its home electricity monitor will work with People Power's software.

People Power's Android and iPhone app, which is available this month, brings a few more features to the PowerCost Monitor's real-time electricity reading, including the ability to set up a monthly energy budget, get energy efficiency recommendations, and compare electricity use to others. It can also get electricity rate data from utilities which have variable prices based on the time of day.

Over the past few weeks, Microsoft and Google attracted interest to home energy technology by announcing plans to retire their respective applications, Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm. Both companies said they didn't get the customer uptake they were hoping for.

Utilities are one channel for bringing energy monitoring to market but a handful of companies are selling directly to consumers with products that use home broadband connections, rather than a two-way smart meter, to get data online.

The deal between BlueLine Innovations, which makes the PowerCost Monitor, and People Power hinges on a Wi-Fi gateway that transmits electricity meter information over the Internet to People Power's application. BlueLine Innovations makes an optical sensor that attaches onto a meter to read data. It then sends data to a handheld device that shows near real-time electricity use and the Wi-Fi gateway. The monitor hardware and optical sensor, sold online or at Lowe's, cost about $100 and the Internet gateway costs an additional $159.

Another company that is using a gateway and home broadband to get data online is WattVision, which also makes an optical sensor and Wi-Fi gateway priced at $249. Consumers can view information through a Web application.

The idea behind real-time electricity monitoring is that people will get more insight into how they power their homes and find ways to conserve. In addition to finding ways to save money, people can simply get a better idea of energy usage before a monthly bill arrives.

Meter sensors with a Wi-Fi gateway are attractive to consumers who want more control over energy but don't have smart meters. To get more detailed energy usage, some energy monitors use sensors that clamp onto the individual circuits going into a circuit box. Another promising technology that will provide more detail are sensors that can recognize the electronic "signature" of large power consumers, such as large appliances or air conditioners. … Read more

Say goodbye to those impromptu panic attacks when faced with blackouts or power surges affecting your servers at work.

Such interruptions in power will become obsolete as more commercial buildings, looking to actively manage energy consumption, invest in uninterruptible power supplies to protect computers and servers.

That's according the latest research report from Pike Research titled "Energy Storage in Commercial Buildings."

The uninterruptible power supply (UPS) industry includes any intermediary device used between the public grid and electronic devices being protected from interruptions like power failures, small surges, or brownouts.

UPS is poised to grow from a $… Read more

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Hohm consumer energy management application because of poor uptake.

The move to discontinue Hohm, announced on the product's community blog today, comes less than a week after Google said it is axing PowerMeter, a similar energy monitoring product.

Microsoft said that Hohm received positive feedback but "due to the slow overall market adoption of the service," the company has decided to focus its environmental efforts elsewhere. In April, CNET reported that Microsoft was phasing out Hohm and would focus its development on electric vehicle charging through a partnership with Ford. … Read more

The Army plans to install microgrids in Afghanistan as part of its mission to reduce its energy-related vulnerability in the field.

A three-month experiment will deploy a system designed to use fuel more efficiency and pave the way solar and wind power in the field, the Army said earlier this week.

Right now, the Army uses diesel generators to power its bases. Transporting that fuel for generators and its vehicles comes at a significant financial and military cost as fuel convoys are often targets for attack.

The microgrids the Army plans to install will include diesel generators that are able … Read more

In the wake of Google's decision to retire its PowerMeter application, industry insiders showed little surprise. But the episode illustrates how the bar has been raised in the nascent home energy management area.

Google on Friday said that it decided to retire PowerMeter, a Web application that displays how much electricity a home is using. Company executives had hopes of expanding the product into a broad set of features, but customer uptake was not as strong as hoped, Google said in a company blog.

For the many smart-grid companies actively working in home energy management, Google's departure reflects how difficult it is to make money in the field of energy efficiency and control. From a product standpoint, the move is a reminder that simply surfacing energy data is not enough to get consumers en masse to care about energy.

"[PowerMeter] really suffered from a fundamental flaw in its operating assumption that people are interested in monitoring their energy usage at a 15-minute level of granularity, or in real time. They are not. People lead extremely busy lives and studying a line chart showing their hourly energy consumption is simply not going to make anyone's priority list," said Ogi Kavazovic, the vice president of marketing and strategy at Opower, a home energy efficiency company.

Dozens of companies have built applications or gadgets called in-home dashboards that show detailed electricity usage with the idea that more information will provide clues on how to conserve energy. For example, showing people that a pool pump is a big energy consumer could lead them to run it on a schedule rather than all the time.

What's more challenging, though, is motivating consumers to stick with energy-saving efforts, according to energy efficiency professionals. To reach a large number of users, information should be presented in a variety of channels--whether it's a Web portal, handheld device, e-mail, or paper--and focus on consumer behavior as much as the technology, they said.

Opower, now a well-recognized company in the field, made its mark with paper reports that show customers how efficient one home is compared to people in similar homes and communities. It focuses on simple presentation of information online and offline and the social psychology around efficiency. For example, its reports have a smiley face to indicate how well people are doing compared to peers on efficiency. … Read more

Google is pulling the plug on its PowerMeter electricity-monitoring tool due to poor uptake, a sign of how tough it is to make money in home energy software.

In a company blog today, Google said that PowerMeter and Google Health Web applications were trailblazers as products, but just didn't catch on as hoped.

"We're pleased that PowerMeter has helped demonstrate the importance of this access and created something of a model. However, our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would like, so we are retiring the service," wrote Bill Weihl, Google Green Energy czar. The service will be suspended September 16, giving people time to export their data.

Google launched PowerMeter two years ago through its philanthropic arm as a Web application that can collect information from smart meters to show consumers detailed information on electricity use. With more detail, people can take steps to cut down on power.

As recently as April of this year, Weihl said in an interview that Google planned to keep developing and offering the product even though home electricity is a "complicated ecosystem." Google's former director of climate change initiatives, Dan Reicher, last year said that Google planned to add features, such as water and natural gas monitoring, as well as allowing consumers to tie into peak-power-shaving programs.

Google offered PowerMeter through utility partnerships and had made deals with electricity monitor device makers so that they could view real-time usage data from PowerMeter on a PC or smartphone.

But cracking beyond the group of energy-conscious consumers has proved elusive--and Google is not alone in that regard.

Microsoft earlier this year told CNET that it plans to refocus its Hohm residential energy management application onto electric-vehicle charging through a partnership with Ford. Hohm was similar to PowerMeter but provided specific recommendations on how to make a home more energy efficient.

At the same time, there are dozens of other companies, including many start-ups, hoping to build energy management systems to improve home energy control and efficiency. … Read more

Three years after launching Google Health, the company has decided to pull the plug on the ailing personal health records service. The lights are also going out for the Google PowerMeter service, which monitors Web-based home energy use.

The Google Health service will expire on January 1, 2012, but users will have until January 1, 2013, to transfer their data out of the system before it gets deleted entirely.

"Now, with a few years of experience, we've observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would," Google said in a blog post today. &… Read more

General Electric and five venture capital companies today said they will invest $63 million in 10 green-tech start-ups working in home energy, bringing them both money and credibility.

GE will also give five $100,000 grants to less-developed companies creating products around household energy efficiency and solar power. The three areas of investment are solar, communications and software, and energy efficiency, said Ecomagination Challenge director Tore Land.

The funding is part of GE's $200 million Ecomagination Challenge program launched last year to solicit ideas to improve the electric grid. GE and its venture capital partners invested in smart-grid and … Read more