The Maui Electric Company and General Electric are joining up to test a unique smart-grid technology on the Hawaiian island's electrical grid.
The Maui, Hawaii, project includes the usual smart-grid tech: developing a substation with battery storage capability to remove and store excess electricity generated from connected wind and solar energy sources. The electricity supply is then released from the substation to the main power grid when it's needed during peak usage times.
Many companies are interested in smart-grid energy technology. Google wants users to confront their home energy use appliance by appliance. IBM is jockeying to be a key supplier for smart-grid tech to utilities. Venture capitalists are investing in smart-grid start-ups.
What's interesting about the Maui Smart Grid project is that it's enlisting regular people to allow their appliances to participate in an electrical grid experiment.
General Electric released news of its Maui Smart Grid project via its employee-authored research blog, From Edison's Desk, on Wednesday.
"For example, consumers may 'opt in' to utility programs that automatically adjust high energy consuming devices, such as water heaters, during periods of peak demand and higher electricity prices," Devon Manz, an energy systems engineer and the project manager for General Electric's Maui Smart Grid, wrote in his blog.
The goal of the project is to see if regulating consumer energy demand can be used to deal with the fluctuations in energy production from renewable resources, according to Manz.
The work will help "GE identify the most relevant technologies for enabling significant penetrations of wind and solar power around the world," he wrote.
Clearly, it's an area the company is truly interested in.
GE's Consumer and Industrial division has already been experimenting with "smart appliances" used by Kentucky residents. The appliances wait for a signal from the power grid that it's a good off-peak time to run non-essential systems.
Soon even more star power than usual will be absorbed by the Staples Center and Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
In an initiative to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the two venues, Solar Power Inc., or SPI, has been hired by AEG to install its line of photovoltaic solar-panel power systems on their roofs, beginning in October.
The Staples Center, which seats approximately 20,000, is home to the LA Lakers, LA Sparks, and LA Clippers basketball teams, the LA Kings hockey team and the LA Avengers arena football team, as well as host to concerts and events such as the Grammy Awards.
When installation is complete, approximately 24,196 feet of the Staples Center roof will be covered with 1,727 of SPI's photovoltaic modules, which include cells made by Motech Industries, adding up to a 345-kilowatt solar-power system.
The famous roof "surfboard," bearing the Staples logo, will not be removed, but rather will be incorporated into the new design, according to SPI.
The Nokia Theatre LA Live is a slightly smaller, 7,100-seat venue that has hosted the 2008 American Idol finals, the American Music Awards, the ESPY Awards, and numerous concerts. Approximately 836 photovoltaic modules will be installed, covering about 11,663 square feet of its roof and supplying a 167-kilowatt solar-power system.
"Our investment to purchase these state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar-energy systems for both Staples Center and Nokia Theater LA Live, making them the first facilities of their kind to do so at this level, reaffirms our commitment to ensuring that our venues are the most environmentally friendly in the industry," Zeidman said in a statement.
The solar installation can be added to the venues' list of "green efforts," which includes things like waterless urinals and energy-efficient fluorescent and LED lighting.
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