#Meet Milli 5 Silver Spring#s Tiny Wireless Smart grid Node Silver Spring Networks wants to push wireless connectivity beyond smart meters
and grid sensors out to all kinds of remote devices--including those that aren plugged into the power grid.
That the purpose of the Milli 5, the new, super-small wireless node unveiled Wednesday by the Redwood City, Calif.-based smart metering giant.
It a little bigger than a quarter, and is meant to keep all sorts of battery-powered devices connected to the network for up to twenty years,
using the same IPV6 addressing that connects Silver Spring grid-powered devices. Silver Spring announced the Milli 5 as part of a broader launch of its new Gen5 technology platform
which features some big claims of enhanced performance. These include speeds of up to 1. 2 megabits per second, up from 300 kilobits per second as of 2012,
as well as 10-millisecond latency, 5x extended range, and more processing power and memory for its Silverlink Sensor Network-enabled devices.
All of these networking advances are built on Silver Spring use of the IEEE 802.15. 4g specification,
which is the emerging standard for the wireless mesh smart-meter networks being deployed across the world.
Silver Spring isn the only smart meter networking vendor tapping the enhanced capabilities of this technology.
Cisco and Itron are using 802.15. 4g wireless for their smart grid and smart city efforts and Toshiba Landis+Gyr is using it for its 27-million smart meter deployment in Tokyo,
to name two prominent examples. But battery-powered wireless devices are a trickier matter, requiring careful management of just how much electricity is being used to receive
and respond to the constant signals being passed back and forth amongst meshed devices. Silver Spring Milli 5 is one-seventh as big as the company's previous networking node, with a fivefold reduction in power consumption--all while increasing range and operational life. n the utility space,
any asset they have in the field, they expect to be able to talk to it, Don Reeves,
Silver Spring executive vice president of engineering and managed services, said in an interview. ome of those assets aren in convenient locations,
some aren powered physically, and some are very small. ith Milli, wee able to go in and aim at some of those lower-end devices,
Others, like pole-top transformers, may be right next to power lines, but can effectively use that electricity to run digital devices,
at least not without expensive alterations. Adding low-power sensors to the mesh also allows Silver Spring to potentially get its network into areas that point-to-point wireless systems might have a hard time reaching,
he said. he problem with those systems is they can see around corners --but we can mesh around corners.
These could include parking meters and monitors trash bins and traffic detectors, or air or water pollution sensors, to name a few of the systems most often talked about in the context of networking municipal assets and services.
Silver Spring is just one of the many smart meter players targeting this nascent field, of course.
Competitors like Itron, Sensus and Landis+Gyr are also working on smaller devices, ubiquitous network coverage, distributed intelligence and the like,
in hopes of expanding their market beyond the smart meter network. So far, networked streetlights have been the primary line of smart city business for these vendors.
and while these streetlight communications modules don need batteries to run, they may want to talk to traffic lights
and cameras, parking sensors and other devices that do need them, Reeves said. Silver Spring says its Milli 5 platform can achieve decades of operation in the field without sacrificing network security
Reeves said the device is ligned with developing standardsfor IPV6-compliant low-power mesh networking, though the company hasn released yet any technical data on just how it achieving that aim.
That's going to be an important part of discussions with would-be Milli 5 partners, since the world of internet-of-things connectivity should really be built on common standards.
It's technically possible to extend an 802.15. 4g network to in-home devices now served by bridges to Zigbee
Z-Wave and other low-power wireless protocols, for example--but only if everyone's low-power IPV6 mesh technologies can get along.
That an emerging area, with all the aforementioned contenders working on their own solutions, that's sure to be getting a lot of attention in 2015 o
#SMA Plans Layoffs of 1600 Sending Its Stock Price to All-time Low SMA Solar, Germany's biggest solar company, is set to cut about 1, 600 jobs,
SMA's core European market has come under pressure over the past two years as governments have pared back support payments on
putting pressure on equipment prices and profit margins. Chicago tribune: Former Opponent Touts Nuclear power at Chicago Event Not too long ago, Carol Browner would have sided with the activists clad in white hazmat suits protesting nuclear power outside the City Club's lunch Tuesday in downtown Chicago.
Instead, Browner, the former U s. Environmental protection agency administrator and a self-professed environmentalist, was featured inside, a speaker touting the benefits of nuclear power.
With 6 percent of nuclear power in the U s. under financial threat, nuclear proponents are attempting to win over environmental activists.
Who better to send the message that nuclear power is a"clean"form of power and worth saving than Browner
who changed her mind and began advocating for nuclear power in 2011. Washington post: White house Opens Up Southern Atlantic coast to Offshore Drilling The Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a politically fraught plan for allowing oil drilling in U s. coastal waters,
announcing steps to open parts of the southeastern U s. coastline for oil leasing while imposing new restrictions on environmentally fragile waters off Alaska North Slope.
The proposals, intended to set a course for coastal energy development into the next decade, sought to strike a balance between soaring demand for energy production
and White house priorities to protect sensitive environments, particularly in the Arctic. EE Markets: Who Got What in Energy efficiency Venture capital?
So it may seem like energy storage is the big star these days. But it turns out that there were just as many energy efficiency venture capital deals last year, according to a new report.
CB Insights ranked energy efficiency and energy storage as tied for third place, along with green/environmental software for venture capital deals in 2014.
The three each captured 8 percent of the greentech VC pie, according to the data company report, he 2014 U s. Venture capital Year in Review.
Internet software/services came in second place with 13 percent. And what was the big winner?
No surprise there. Renewables took 20 percent. Raw Story: Researchers Tout Solar panels Made With erovskitemineral A new generation of solar panels made from a mineral called perovskite has the potential to convert solar energy into household electricity more cheaply than ever before, according to a study from Britain Exeter University.
Super-thin, custom-colored panels attached to a building windows may become a oly grailfor India and African countries, Senthilarasu Sundaram,
one of the authors of the study, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. n those countries,
these types of materials will be like a holy grail: they can both shade windowsnd at the same time produce electricity,
he said e
#The Case for Long-Duration Storage: Net Electricity Load in Calif. Is 5 Years Ahead of Schedule On January 11, 2015, a rather unremarkable Sunday earlier this month,
the California Independent System Operator daily duck curve was approximately 1, 500 megawatts below where it is projected to be in 2020.
That the midday statistic. Overnight, the daily duck curve was about 3, 000 megawatts below the 2020 forecast.
That means that CAISO is operating the grid, this month, at net load (that is the system demand less solar and wind generation) more than five years ahead of forecast.
California needs more energy storage to match the duck curve Experiencing this net load years ahead of the CAISO forecast has placed not the California grid in crisis. The state's grid has sufficient flexibility today to accommodate the rapid rise of solar power,
which is the primary driver of change in CAISO grid operations. However, with the January 2015 milestone landing well beyond the 2020 forecast,
the utilities and CPUC should accelerate procurement of energy storage to match the accelerating duck curve.
Long-duration energy storage offers both the benefits of grid flexibility similar to flexible gas plants, and the reuse of zero-marginal-cost midday solar during the evening energy ramp.
Long-duration energy storage unique functionality uncaps the limits to growth of solar in California--and beyond.
Beyond air quality and climate change mitigation benefits, California abundant renewable energy resources provide energy with zero marginal cost and zero fuel price volatility to our citizens,
California energy agencies are already collaborating to accelerate penetration of energy storage. Several promising long-duration energy storage technologies are now in early commercial operation homegrown in California with support from the California Energy Commission and the U s. Department of energy.
The CPUC can pull out the playbook that bestowed California with an abundance of solar energy and use it again with energy storage.
long-duration energy storage technologies to market so that they can deliver at scale in 2018--not sometime in the next decade.
Scale drives cost reduction for storage We are already witnessing the impact of manufacturing scale on cost for lithium-ion batteries being bid into the electricity market.
A variety of emerging long-duration energy storage technologies will also experience the rapid cost reduction that inevitably follows commercial scale.
In both my consulting practice and in my pro-bono work with Calcharge I have had the opportunity to see inside the proto-factories of a range of emerging long-duration energy storage technologies,
all of which have demonstrated major engineering progress. What they need next is a commercial contract of modest scale to prove bankability.
Utility contracts from the current round of energy storage procurement can provide the market pull for long-duration energy storage technology.
Was the January 2015 data an anomaly? No. CAISO uses a March 31 forecast date to illustrate the daily forecasted maximum ramp requirements on its system from 2014 through 2020.
However, CAISO did experience multiple days with negative real-time energy pricing during 2014 demonstrating the limitations to system economics given today substantial supply of inflexible generation participating in the energy market.
Since Christmas week 2013, the system operator has been helpfully posting actual net load. You can find the daily duck as the last chart here,
it is providing both real-time data and forecasts for how supply and demand will match in its territory.
Now what do we do with the CAISO good work? 2015 is the year to open the market for long-duration energy storage.
To avoid the perverse outcome of curtailment of zero-marginal-cost, greenhouse gas-free renewable resources, we need to absorb gigawatt-hours'worth of midday solar energy for reuse later in the day or the week.
we have the abundant solar and wind resources, the innovative companies, and the open energy storage procurement proceeding that can, at a modest scale, kick-start the long-duration energy storage market.
#Which Grid-Edge Startups Are Raising the Most Capital? Nowhere is investor interest in energy solutions more apparent than at the grid edge. 2014 saw a dramatic increase in venture capital and private equity investment in companies developing innovative solutions, particularly energy storage, demand
-side management and energy data analytics technologies. Though the amount of investment hasn returned quite to the peak reached in 2011,
the number of deals and the number of vendors receiving funding is higher than ever.
In the process of writing the newly released M&a and VC at the Grid Edge report, we looked at
which startups have received the most funding since 2010. It true that money doesn guarantee the success of a grid-edge startup.
After all Better Place raised around $850 million before closing up shop. But strong support from the VC community is an indication of a technology
and business model that have real potential--assuming those VCS have done their homework. Energy storage and fuel cells The two outliers in this category are Boston-Power and Bloom energy.
Boston-Power has raised up to $450 million for its lithium-ion battery technology over the past five years.
But the company has combined investment and grants in official press releases, so that total is a ceiling rather than an exact figure.
Fuel-cell vendor Bloom energy isn far behind having raised a reported $410 million since 2010, though the company has been officially silent on recent investments (leaving reporters to sift through emails from fund managers).
Beyond the outliers, many of the 50-some startups developing grid storage technologies have closed on significant financing.
The top five are shown in the following chart. Figure: Five Top-Funded Energy storage Startups, 2010-2014 Source:
GTM Research Grid Edge 100: M&a and VC at the Grid Edge The comparison isn exactly apples to apples.
Stem and Green Charge Networks are competing over C&i customers looking to manage their energy bills,
which requires project financing to allow the two companies to offer energy storage systems at no upfront cost.
Atieva has focused initially on the EV market. Aquion and Ambri have landed both large deals in the process of commercializing novel battery technologies,
though Aquion two-year age advantage makes a direct funding comparison with Ambri difficult. Demand-side management As the demand response market consolidates, there a high level of investment activity among home and building energy management providers.
Nest was a leader in investment raised having closed three rounds prior to its acquisition, one
of which was disclosed at $80 million. Here the next tier among the nearly 50 energy management providers receiving funding over the past five years.
Figure: Top-Funded Home and Building Energy management Startups, 2010-2014 Source: GTM Research Grid Edge 100:
M&a and VC at the Grid Edge As the oldest of the group, Gridpoint has raised an exceptional amount of capital over an exceptional amount of time.
The C&i energy management company has disclosed well over $200 million in investment since its founding in 2003.
Enlighted has raised also significant capital as it has broadened its solution from lighting controls to a more comprehensive set of building energy management applications.
On the residential side, Greenwave Systems and Alertme have made energy management a central component of their connected home platforms.
Ecofactor has focused exclusively on residential demand response and energy efficiency. Soft grid It cheaper to commercialize software than hardware.
The average venture deal size for soft grid or data analytics, startups was less than half of the same for grid-edge hardware startups.
Even so, several of the 40 companies receiving funding since 2010 have raised notable amounts of capital.
Figure: Top-Funded Soft Grid Startups, 2010-2014 Source: GTM Research Grid Edge 100: M&a and VC at the Grid Edge Prior to its public offering in 2014,
Opower raised a $50 million C round in 2010 for its consumer energy use data analytics and reporting.
Competing provider Tendril, which has shifted its focus from energy management hardware to software, has continued to bring in new funding.
SCIENERGY recently reemerged from stealth with new funding for software to streamline financing for commercial energy efficiency projects.
C3 has raised at least $38 million since 2010 for data analytics covering both sides of the meter.
And Space-time Insight, which visualizes grid data for utilities, has closed two deals worth well above the average for soft-grid vendors.
A word of caution It important to note that analyzing VC investments is an imperfect science.
Companies may keep deals confidential, may announce them late or may keep the amounts invested under wraps.
Other companies avoid VC investment entirely to insulate themselves from the expectations of outside investors.
Still, the available data allows us to draw conclusions about the emergence and consolidation of different markets serving grid needs r
#Will 2015 Be a Breakthrough Year for Storage in the UK? The United kingdom has no clear government policy on energy storage
and offers no major incentives to companies and no subsidies at all to households to install energy storage.
To date, only paltry sums have been invested in energy storage projects there. And yet, many are feeling optimistic about where the storage industry is headed.
Several major manufacturers have launched either domestic solar-storage products in the U k. in the last six months,
or are planning to do so sometime this year. In the last week, the U k. Renewable energy Association has launched a new trade body dedicated to commercializing energy storage.
The U k. Electricity Storage Network is expecting a Minister from the Department of energy and Climate change (DECC) to participate in its annual meeting.
And to crown it all the U k. currently has the biggest battery in Europe. So is storage really taking off?
To date, according to the U s. Department of energy Global Energy storage Database, the Brits currently have a grand total of 32 projects,
providing 3, 300 megawatts of storage, of which the vast majority comes from pumped hydro. Around 62 megawatts are
(or soon will be provided by batteries and 5 megawatts by mainly uninterruptible power supply flywheel systems. There are also experimental compressed air,
cryogenic thermal and flow battery projects ongoing. That 3, 300-megawatt total compares quite favorably with 7, 600 megawatts in Germany and 6, 560 megawatts in California,
a state with similar energy requirements to the U k. But there's a push for much more. toring energy will become increasingly important in the move toward a low-carbon economy
and has the potential to save the energy system over £4 billion $6 billion by 2050,
"said DECC Minister Greg Barker last year. The DECC has stated also that the energy storage market is forecast to reach $17 billion in 2020,
and to be nearly $30 billion in 2030. Some argue that energy storage can help save consumers money by possibly reducing new grid buildout.
Anthony Price, director of the Electricity Storage Network, explains: The UK electricity and natural gas regulator Ofgem has calculated that it will cost £50 billion $76 billion to rewire Britain.
This will be to provide flexibility in the grid and allow the integration of more renewables,
add resilience to the grid, and to improve energy efficiency across the grid. If you look at energy storage,
it can help meet all three of those requirements. So we can spend £50 billion on rewiring the country,
or we can have more energy storage. Price organization is lobbying for a minimum 2, 000 megawatts of new network-connected electricity storage by the year 2020.
A fairly modest figure this represents less than 10 percent of the predicted increase in renewable generation capacity over the same time period.
The question still remains whether the U k. government will take investment in energy storage seriously. Price notes that
while the current administration is happy to ick winnersby promoting solar and wind, it refuses to do so in the case of storage.
On the other hand, it has provided a modest £50 million ($76 billion) in backing for research projects around the country.
The most prominent of these is the Smarter Network Storage project, better known as the biggest battery in Europe.
A 6-megawatt/10-megawatt-hour system the battery is designed to explore alternative revenue streams for storage,
while deferring traditional network reinforcement. Numerous early-stage projects have emerged. Highview Power won funding for a demonstration of its liquid air storage technology.
REDT is developing a vanadium redox flow battery for storing wind and wave power in Scotland. And Isentropic is building a demonstration project for its cryogenic energy storage technology.
Domestic solar-plus-storage is also taking off in the U k. Last September, SMA launched its Sunny Boy Smart energy PV inverter and battery system.
Sharp followed suit at the end of last year by offering a solar-and-storage device that uses Samsung batteries.
Bosch is hoping for certification of a solar-storage inverter next month and various other solar players, such as Renesola of China, seem to be clamoring to enter the U k. market.
These companies could be looking to cash in on growth in U k. solar installations. While much of the European solar market has suffered from a slowdown last year,
Britain helped keep the overall picture a little rosier, with an estimated 3. 2 gigawatts of PV installed in 2014.
One solution for boosting domestic supply of residential storage systems is to leverage vehicle battery manufacturers,
said Frank Gordon of the newly launched energy storage section of the U k. Renewable energy Association.""The U k. is home to one of the only electric vehicle battery plants in the world, the Nissan plant in Tyneside.
These car batteries could offer good potential for small-scale energy storage applications, "said Gordon. In the meantime, storage supporters like Gordon are looking for clearer support signals from the government. s solar storage is still a developing technology,
the need to establish a policy and technical framework for it to operate within is said paramount,
EU Utilities Trapped in'Coal Death Spiral'The share values of Europe biggest utilities have plummeted after the energy companies backed outdated business models that rely on coal,
or more than a third (37%)of their stock market value from 2008 to 2013, the Carbon Tracker Initiative said.
Germany E ON and RWE, France GDF SUEZ, Électricité de france, and Italy Enel are named in the analysis, which found heavily coal-reliant utilities fared worse.
Fortune: What One Startup CEO Learned From Handling Apple's Homekit Mess While Apple may claim that its Homekit support isn delayed,
it becoming obvious that the company has faced some challenges in building an Apple-like experience around home automation that has caught its hardware partners off guard.
a connected thermostat company that has been selling the devices since 2007, and announced a Homekit certified thermostat last week.
Christian science monitor: Not All Call Dealers Hate Tesla's Direct Sales Several large car-dealer groups are"quietly supporting"Tesla, according to Marketwatch.
That claim comes from a note published by Morgan stanley, in which analysts said certain dealers"would be delighted with deregulation."
"The dealers--not named in the note--apparently think relaxing laws that force carmakers to sell only through independent franchised stores would be good for their business.
China's Greenhouse gases Could Peak Early China's greenhouse gas emissions could peak by 2025, five years earlier than indicated by Beijing,
a development that could help limit the mounting risks of global warming, a study by the London School of economics (LSE) showed on Monday.
#Harvard Organic Flow battery Under Development in Europe Last year, the Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences demonstrated a flow battery concept in the laboratory that used organic quinone molecules as the basis for its electrolyte.
The most expensive component of flow systems is often the electrolyte. Many current and prototype systems use elements such as vanadium,
he jumped on a plane from Rome to Boston for a meeting with Dr. Aziz, the battery project's director,
Green energy Storage was founded and secured exclusive licensing rights for the technology and the products it yields in the 28 European union nations,
The company is owned by a small group of investors. Management Innovation owns a small share
Meanwhile, a team at University of Rome Tor Vergata supplies scientific know-how. We spoke to Angelo Aliquò, a senior partner with Management Innovation and long-time energy industry consultant,
to find out how the project is progressing. Green energy Storage has attracted already around half a million dollars of share capital
and is close to securing tens of millions more, Aliquò revealed. It's all private capital
with no state or European union money involved. Although Aliquò wouldn't disclose of the current or future investors,
he hints:""We have attracted a lot of interest from two or three very big European companies in the energy market."
"As for technological input, the company is working both with the original Harvard team and researchers from the Department of Chemical science and Technology of the University Tor Vergata.
Green energy Storage is in negotiations to sign up suppliers in Europe and the U s. for the various component parts that will be needed
if its products take off in the market. Again, Aliquò preferred not to name suppliers. The next crucial step will be planned a demonstration for Rome in July this year,
and attract additional funding, at which markets will Green energy Storage's organic flow system be aimed?
First, the company plans to attack the domestic storage market with systems of 5-to 20-kilowatt-hours,
designed to hold around four hours of electricity. These should be on sale in 2017, according to current plans.
Next, Aliquò wants to take a slice of the utility market by launching a grid-scale range sometime in 2018.
Aliquò lists the many advantages of the flow battery technology, particularly the projected cost savings. And unless the Green energy Storage team substantially modifies Harvard's technology,
the battery will also use other inexpensive elements, such as carbon electrodes. He also cites the fact that quinones are natural
organic products that present little or no health risk. These molecules are also highly stable, even at fairly high temperatures,
and are less likely than other electrolyte options to cross the battery membrane, thanks to the organic molecules'size and charge.
Another advantage claimed for organic flow batteries is the high solubility of quinones in aqueous solutions, allowing for energy densities that are orders of magnitude higher than lead-acid, lithium-ion,
and vanadium redox flow chemistries. Tags: green energy storage, harvard, organic flow battery, redox flow batter l
#Can $4b in Clean energy Investment Come Fast enough? The White house announced more than $4 billion in commitments at a Clean energy Investment Summit on Tuesday to scale up clean energy companies and address climate change. here not a single reason...
that by 2020 renewables can be 20 percent of U s. energy, said Vice president Joe Biden. nd that the floor, not the ceiling.
One of the reasons that hasn happened yet is because of funding limitations facing early-stage cleantech companies.
The money will come from philanthropists, universities, big banks and environmental nonprofits. The committed funds are more than double the goal of the President Obama Clean energy Investment Initiative that was announced earlier this year.
One of the key efforts will be to bring philanthropy to early-stage, high-risk and high-impact cleantech investments. nly with the private sector can we even mostly realize the possibility of this energy transformation,
said Biden. ur energy future is in cleaner, cheaper renewable energy. A new organization, PRIME Coalition, is committed to helping foundations manage the complex pipeline process of vetting candidates and helping to lower transaction costs for foundations,
as well as ensuring theye adhering to the proper tax rules. Along with PRIME, Cleantech Syndicate announced on Tuesday a merger with CREO Network to become CREO Syndicate.
The move brings together more than 250 family offices and foundations with more than $50 billion of investable capital.
CREO Network plans to invest about $2 billion over the next five years in companies with missions relating to environmental
energy and climate impact. or the folks who already are active for doing deals in this area,
it creates a structure to find each other, Rob Day, partner at Black Coral Capital, said of CREO Syndicate.
The Treasury department is helping the effort to bring foundations into the fold by issuing new guidance around mission-related investments.
The Treasury will also initialize rules around program-related investments (PRIS), a type of investment via which charities can fund for-profit companies that are addressing environmental issues.
Just throwing charitable money at promising startups won be enough, however. Arunas Chesonis a telecom entrepreneur with a family foundation, gives away millions each year to projects in the energy sector.
He has found that many early-stage companies he encounters are associated facing difficulties with bringing disruptive technologies to entrenched industries. t not a valley of death;
it a valley of higher impact, Chesonis said during the summit. The current focus on climate change
and the disruption already happening to the electric utility industry could make the current juncture a particularly advantageous time for investors
and philanthropists to focus on cleantech. Biden added that we do not have another two or three years to try to figure out the acceleration of cleantech--the time is now.
According to a new poll by The New york times, 68 percent of Americans say there is olid evidence of global warming,
compared to 57 percent in 2009. And yet new solutions likely won come from utilities--as Biden noted
less than 1 percent of utility revenue goes to R&d. hope there never a point of no return, Biden said of rising temperatures due to climate change,
ut man, wee getting closer. Led by the University of California, a group of institutional investors has committed already more than $1 billion for igh-potential companies
and projects for commercial investment that could also produce impactful and profitable solutions to climate change.
The second-largest investor to commit funds is the New zealand Superannuation fund. f we are to achieve our climate goals,
it is imperative that we find ways to incentivize the global capital markets to invest in clean energy,
Energy secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement. here a moral argument, there a climate change argument,
and there an economic argument, Biden said of investing in low-carbon technologies. here a new reality.
The climate is changing. o
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