Thousands of electric cars are now communicating with owner’s smart phones, charging stations, and service networks. These EVs are plugging into smart grids that use network communications to charge off-peak, monitor and improve reliablity. When I use my Blink EVSE to charge my Nissan Leaf, the charger sends a packet of info to the charging [...]
By John Addison (10/12/10) AT&T (T), Xcel Energy (XEL), Johnson Controls (JCI), Southern California Edison (SCE), and New York Power Authority have all ordered Ford Transit Connect Electric. These pure battery-electric vans have an electric charge range of 80 miles and are a great fit for many fleet, small business, and delivery applications. Although Nissan [...]
By John Addison – original article at Clean Fleet Report Google Energy could be a Smart Charging and V2G Provider Google finally won approval from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to be an electric utility. Now that they are making billions delivering web ads, do they want to make added billions selling electricity? Quite possibly. [...]
By John Addison (originally published in the Clean Fleet Report) By 2020, 219,000 customers of PG&E (NYSE: PCG) may say goodbye to those trips to the gas station. No more spinning dials at the pump – $20.00, $40.00, $80.00, etc. Instead drivers will conveniently plug-in their electric cars at home or work. The fill-up will [...]
By John Addison (1/28/08). In the future, utilities will pay you to plug-in your vehicle. Millions will plug-in their electric vehicles (EV), plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) at night when electricity is cheap, then plug-in during the day when energy is expensive and sell those extra electrons at a profit. Vehicle to [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi In the spirit (though not the length) of a back-to-school book report, I dedicate this column to reviewing three energy-related books that I read in the last few weeks as the dog-days of summer wound to a conclusion. Cape Wind I first read Cape Wind by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb, [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi In the 1990′s, electricity deregulation was the next big thing. By separating generation and retailing from the natural monopoly wires businesses (transmission and distribution), competition could be spawned in wholesale and retail electricity markets, thereby unleashing long-repressed efficiencies and innovation in the production and sale of electricity products and services. Deregulation [...]
by Frank Ling Going off the grid180,000 American household must be onto something if they can live without the grid. Despite the costs of setting up your own distributed generation, Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power magazine, says that this number increases by one-third each year. On this this week’s Energy Blog, Jim Fraser says: [...]
By John Addison (4/17/07) Question: What could be more American than healthy competition? Answer: Healthy competition that reduces our dependency on foreign oil. By 2010 you may be filling your “tank” by plugging-in to your electric and natural gas utility. Today fleets turn to utilities to power everything from light electric vehicles to heavy natural [...]
The cleantech sector received a huge boost this week from the news that Portugal’s EDP anounced the acquisition of Texas based Horizon Wind for a price of over $2 Bil. EDP operates globally in Spain, Portugal and Brazil. One of the intriguing aspects of this deal is the history. Horizon Wind was formerly Zilkha Renewable [...]
Fuel Tech (Nasdaq: FTEK) is one of the fast growing public greentech / cleantech companies focused on cleaning up dirty coal. I have known John Norris, the CEO of Fuel Tech, and his family for years, and have had the pleasure of following his career for some time. He’s one of the many former nuclear [...]
Two interesting cleantech reports came out in the last couple of days. One talking about the problem, the other the solution. On the problem side, as reported in USA Today, a team of researchers working at Texas A&M found that increased pollution in Asia, primarily from the rise of industrialism in China over the last [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Last weekend, TXU Corporation (NYSE: TXU) made the stunning announcement that it would be acquired by two private equity giants — Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Texas Pacific Group (TPG) — in a transaction valued at $45 billion. Press release Two things leap out at me from the announced deal. First, [...]
