2013 a record year for PV installations
37 GW of newly added capacity globally, EPIA reports EPIA, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, presented the findings during its 9th Market Workshop in Brussels last week. Other highlights from the report: the global PV cumulative…
Manufacturers facing pressure to drive EV popularity
Electric vehicles (EV) are seeing another push as pressure on car manufacturing companies to devise sustainable and environmental friendly automobiles grows. Although electric cars will not be the answer to all environmental issues, automakers are…
Behind-the-meter energy storage
Traditional utility thinking would have it all congregated in a single location: a warehouse full of batteries ready to send power to and from the grid in a centralized fashion. A decentralized approach, however, adds…
California’s IOUs plan to offer time-of-use rates
Customers’ acceptance or resistance to time-of-use-rates hinges on two key factors—how well the rates are designed, and how effectively they are marketed—according to Peter Cappers, a research scientist with the Electric Markets and Policy Group…
Energy storage 2013 and beyond
Smart grid energy storage technologies, and related software applications, experienced significant advancements in 2013. Utilities around the world deployed new energy storage systems and participated in pilot projects aimed at producing a more dependable and…
The Utility Customer 2020: Digital, connected, social
Change is happening all around us. Technology continues to impact our lives at exponential rates. Social media networks and mobile devices, in particular, are constantly evolving the way we interact with the world. We previously…
Smart grid and the connection to smart cities
Modernizing the nation’s electric grid is paying dividends for many utilities. Ongoing population growth and economic development in urban metropolitan areas makes meeting the growing demand for electricity a perpetual challenge. Utility experts advocate a…
New fuel cell uses solar and biomass
Despite the benefits of low-temperature fuel cell technologies, they cannot directly use biomass as a fuel because of the lack of an effective catalyst system. However, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a low-temperature…
