Green Energy Info

This article was written By H. JOSEF HEBERT Washington (AP)

This article is very interesting and looks at the future of our electrical grid system which is aging and in need of a face lift!

Thomas Alva Edison, meet the Internet.
More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the nation’s electricity distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age.

The “smart grid” has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. President Barack Obama says it’s essential to boost development wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and tackle climate change.

What smart grid visionaries see coming are home thermostats and individual appliances that adjust automatically based on the cost of power, and water heaters that can draw power from a neighbor’s rooftop solar panel. They see a time when, on a scorching hot day, a plug-in hybrid electric car charges one minute and a few moments later sends electricity back into the grid to help avert a brownout.

Also coming are utilities that get instant feedback on a transformer outage or shift easily among energy sources from wind turbines to coal-burning power plants and back to the turbines when the wind begins to blow again.

And, from miles away, power companies will peer into homes and businesses, then automatically lower thermostats or adjust power use, depending on demand and prearranged agreements.

“It’s the marriage of information technology and automation technology with the existing electricity network. This is the energy Internet,” said Bob Gilligan, vice president for transmission at GE Energy, one of many companies aggressively pursuing smart grid development. “There are going to be applications 10 years from now that you and I have no idea that we’re going to want or need or think are essential to our lives.”

Hundreds of technology companies, fledgling venture capitalists, longtime corporate icons and almost every major electric utility company want to be part of the grid modernization. Interest only intensified after Obama included $4.5 billion for development of the smart grid in his economic recovery package.

The merger of flowing electrons with the computer-driven information revolution won’t be cheap, nor easy. Who’s going to pay the bill? Will consumers get the payback they are promised? Might some people view utilities and their “smart meters” as being too intrusive?

Could an end-to-end computerization of the grid — with millions of access portals — increase the risk of cyberattacks by pranksters, or more foreboding, by terrorists looking to shut the system down.

Demonstration projects, including the smart meters installed in thousands of homes, are cropping up across the country. But the smart grid as seen by Gilligan and others probably will take years to develop and could cost $75 billion.

Overall transmission modernization, including new higher capacity lines along with the communications technology, could cost as much as $1 trillion, according to some estimates.

Even agreeing on what a smart grid is can be complicated. It’s different things to different people.

Yet to understand the changes being considered means first looking at today’s transmission system.

“Sadly, if Edison were alive today, he’d be all too familiar with the current system we rely on. Not that much has changed” in 127 years, said Carol Browner, the White House adviser on energy and climate. At a recent energy conference, she described that system as congested, disjointed and out of date.

Others compare the hundreds of thousands of miles of power lines that crisscross the country to a river flowing down a hill: an inefficient one-way movement of electrons from power plant to consumer. It uses primitive technologies — cables, meters, circuit breakers, fuses and rudimentary monitors. But there is little way to provide any feedback of information to the power company running the system or those buying the electricity.

“The heart of a smart grid is to make the grid more flexible, to more easily control the flow of electrons, and make it more efficient and reliable,” said Greg Scheu, head of the power production division at ABB North America, a leading grid technology provider.

At the core, others see the ability for consumers to monitor and control their electricity use and cost with a keystroke on a laptop computer — or through home thermostats and even appliances that talk to the grid directly to adjust electricity use through smart meters.

“The meter is only the beginning. It’s the minimal part of smart grid,” said Alex Huang, director of a grid technology center at North Carolina State University. With instant communications and monitoring, a smart grid will use technology to change where electricity is generated and how it is distributed.

Instead of power flowing from a small number of sources, down main electronic highways, the smart grid can usher in a system of distributed energy, Huang said. “Electricity will flow from homes and businesses into the grid, neighborhoods will use local power and not just power flowing from a single source,” he said. One day, perhaps an electronically controlled automated system will direct power flow.

Technological breakthroughs will be needed to produce the kind of system Huang envisions. But the ability to shove the aging grid into the digital world is here today, say smart grid advocates.

“The hurdles are not technological. They’re really policy hurdles,” said Michael Jung, director of policy at California-based Silver Spring Networks, one of a number of smart grid technology companies that have emerged in recent years and are working with utilities.

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In cities such as Boulder, Colo., Seattle, Houston, Miami, and on the Delaware’s Delmarva Peninsula, there are glimpses of what the future grid might look like.

On the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, the chancellor’s home has been turned into a smart grid showhouse as part of a citywide demonstration project spearheaded by Xcel Energy.

The home has a laptop-controlled electricity management system that integrates a rooftop solar panel with grid-supplied power and that tracks energy use. It also has equipment to charge a plug-in hybrid electric car. Energy consumption in the 7,000-square-foot home has dropped by nearly one-third.

It’s part of an experiment in which Xcel is providing many of the residents of Boulder, a college town of 100,000 people, with smart grid technology. Consumers won’t have to pay for the upgrades because Xcel and technology vendors are covering the $100 million cost.

In Seattle, the utility is testing how 13 plug-in hybrid electric cars interact with the power grid, using equipment that can send real-time performance information back to a utility to determine when a vehicle needs to be charged. In the future, utilities remotely may prearrange schedules for charging hundreds of thousands of such vehicles.

Florida Power & Light is planning to provide smart meters covering 1 million homes and businesses in the Miami area over the next two years, hoping the federal economic recovery package will cover half the projected $200 million cost. Pepco Holdings Inc. plans to install 250,000 smart electric meters in Delaware and is seeking state go-ahead to do the same in other Mid-Atlantic states in which it operates.

“We’ve got about 70 (smart grid) pilots all over the country right now,” said Mike Oldak an expert on smart grid at the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned power companies.

Oldak said utilities see smart grid as a way to meet future electricity needs with fewer additional power plants. His group estimates that $700 billion in new electricity generation will be needed over the next 20 years, but that energy savings through grid modernization can cut that by $200 billion.

David Rouls of the consulting firm Accenture, which is involved in smart grid projects in the United States and Europe, says he doubts there is a utility that hasn’t had a smart meter vendor try to sell them on a pilot project. “Everyone is doing something with this right now. Boards of directors want to understand from their CEOs what is your strategy to address this,” Rouls said.

Center Point Energy, which serves 2.2 million customers in the metropolitan Houston area, expects to spend $1 billion over the next five years on smart grid. The company hopes it eventually will pay for itself in efficiency savings — both in how it ships power and how people use it.

The utility has about 20,000 smart meters installed and plans to have all its customers covered by 2015. Houston area residential customers will see an additional $3.24 a month on their electric bills. But Center Point says that should be more than offset by energy savings as people begin to get real-time information about their electricity costs and adjust their energy use.

An Energy Department study projects energy savings of 5 percent to 15 percent from smart grid.

“This pays for itself through efficiency and demand reduction and if you don’t look at it from that perspective you won’t get your money back,” says Thomas Standish, group president for regulated operations at Center Power Energy. “If you don’t get more efficiency savings … this would be the world’s most expensive meter reading system.”

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The cost and payback is what worries state regulators. Their job is to make sure utilities put their money into wise investments before they raise electricity rates to pay for them.

Frederick Butler is chairman of New Jersey’s utility commission and president of NARUC, the national group that represents those state agencies. He urges caution.

“We need to demonstrate to folks that there’s a benefit here before we ask them to pay for this stuff,” he said.

“We’re telling them you’re going to love it,” said Butler. He noted that in a rush to bring competition to the retail electricity industry some years ago, “we promised too much and delivered too little. … We cannot make the same mistake about smart grid.”

Garry Brown, chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission and head of NARUC’s electricity committee, said state regulators “see the excitement … and the potential” of smart grid. But He questions asking ratepayers to pony up money at a time of economic hardship and when people already are seeing their electricity costs going up. “Is it, in fact, cost effective?” he asked.

A promise of $4.5 billion in economic recovery money for smart grid development, much of it going to help pay for installing new meters, has produced a rush by utilities and technology companies to start or accelerate projects. Recently, the Energy Department increased the maximum amount a project can get from $20 million to $200 million.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu calls smart grid “an urgent national priority” because a failure to modernize the electric transmission system will stand in the way of developing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar technology. “You will need a system that can dispatch power here, there and everywhere on a very quick basis,” Chu said.

But Chu also worries about security, saying that must be a priority if smart grid is to proceed. “If you want to create mischief one very good way to create a great deal of mischief is to actually bring down a smart grid system. This system has to be incredibly secure,” he said.

A smart grid “provides a lot more portals for cybermischief to happen,” Butler said. “It’s going to provide more opportunity for people to monkey around.”

Brian Seal, a senior project manager at the Electricity Power Research Institute, said the industry is studying the security risks of expanding the cyberinfrastructure all along the electricity grid. The consensus now is that “the potential benefits far outweigh the risks.”

To some, smart grid’s biggest benefit will be in providing consumers, for the first time, detailed information on electricity costs and the ability to choose when and how much power to use at any given time.

It is no wonder that Google, the Internet search-engine powerhouse, this year unveiled a Google PowerMeter for the homeowner to track energy use. It is being tested by its employees. Google estimates that over the next four years, half of America’s households will have smart meters and might want to have one of the devices.

“This whole area of energy information is of keen interest to Google,” said Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google. “People should have access to this data.”

But are people gong to be tied to their laptops digesting energy usage and costs?

At a recent Senate hearing on smart grid, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, acknowledged the promises of a smart grid are many, but also questioned public acceptance.

“Is the average consumer willing to pay the upfront costs of a new system and then respond appropriately to price signals?” she asked. “Or will people view a utility’s ability to reach inside a home to turn down a thermostat as Orwellian?”

This Article was Written By Tom Meersman, Star Tribune

Hopes are high at the State Capitol that the right mix of dollars and policies are in place to give solar energy in Minnesota a needed jolt.

You don’t need to be a technological wiz to make solar power panels. There are some great manuals out there that teach you how to do it and it is pretty simple. It’s an upfront cost to buy the parts but they will save you money for years to come. Can you imagine life with no electric bill. Check this out! there are solar water heaters. Think of the gas costs you would save using a solar water heater!

Yes! This is the way of the future. Solar and wind power. Good clean efficient energy. The wind and sun will never go away in our lifetime. It is a great free energy source. Do you think the government could charge a wind and sun tax? They are giving tax breaks to those who choose to go green, use solar and wind energy. Learn more about how to make solar power panels today and get off the grid soon!!!

It’s not going to take weeks or months to build your do it yourself windmill only a day or two. Basically a weekend. I really don’t understand why we haven’t started using this technology a long time ago. NASA has been using green technology for over 50 years. Windmills have been around for hundreds of years. How many times have you been driving through the country and seen windmills around the landscape? They aren’t there for decoration.

Green energy for your home is cheap to do if you do it yourself. You will pay big bucks if you have a professional do it but you can do it yourself. You owe it to yourself, your family and everyone around you to look into going green. So come on get on the green machine!!! Learn more about building a do it yourself windmill Today!!!

Cheap wind energy is easy to get set up and running. You don’t have to be a tradesman to build your own windmill. It’s easy to do and will cost you about $200.00 for the parts. You can find these in your local hardware store or home center. The blades can be made out of cheap PVC pipe usually found in the plumbing department. The mast or pole the windmill will be a piece of heavy duty electrical conduit.

You will need a good guide which there are plenty of all over the Internet. Shop around. Building the windmill is a fun and educational project. Once you are up and running and generating more electricity than you use you can sell the leftovers back to the power company for even more money back in your pocket. Learn more about cheap wind energy here!

If you are rich or getting big bonuses from taxpayer stimulus money then you don’t need to know how I lower my electric bill. If you are an average person who is suffering through this economic downturn this may be good information. It is probably stuff you already know but do you practice it? I know all of it but actually putting it into practice isn’t that easy. It is easy for me to do it but getting everyone in the house to do it is a different story.

I have 4 daughters and trying to get them to turn off lights and and do the things that need to be done to cut down on electric costs.

Some simple things I do and get my family to do to lower my electric bill are:

Turn off lights when you leave a room: even if you are only leaving the room for a couple of minutes. Sometimes a couple of minutes turns into a couple of hours.

Make sure you do full loads of laundry: My kids are good for this. They will do 1 top and a pair of jeans. This can cost you more on electric and water.

On nice days Hang laundry outside to dry: This will save you on electric and gas.

If you have a dishwasher cut down on it’s use: Do dishes by hand a few times a week. This saves you water and electric. When I was a kid growing up me and my brothers and sister took turns doing dinner dishes every night.

Don’t take showers until the hot water runs out: Get in get clean and get out. Don’t stand in there and let the hot water run over you. It may feel good but what does it cost you to do this every day? This saves on gas and water.

If you are not watching TV turn it off: In lots of households the TV goes on in the morning and doesn’t go off until late at night. Don’t go to sleep with the TV on!

These are some of the things I do and make sure my family does to lower my electric bill. As you can see some things help lower other utility bills as well. There are some other things that I have been looking into and you should as well if you want to cut down on your electric bill.

I have been looking into green energy. Solar power and wind energy. It has been a very interesting journey. You can build solar panels and windmills for less than $200.00. Maybe you can’t do enough solar panels all at once to power your whole house but just one or 2 running only a few things in your home will cut your electric bill. I am definitely going to go solar and wind power at my house to lower my electric bill.

If you are asking yourself how to lower my electric bill you should definitely follow the tips outlined above. I am sure you can come up with some of your own. If you decide to go green and use solar and wind power like me you will have to do some of these. When you are getting power from your electric company it is unlimited so if you leave the lights on for 2 days they will go until the bulbs burn out and you will pay. When you are producing your own power it’s not unlimited so you have to be more conservative. That doesn’t mean you have to sit in the dark but you have to be more aware of how you use your power. You can also sell the unused power you generate back to the power company.

If you want to learn more about how I am going green and more about how I am lowering my electric costs check out lower my electric bill.

This is what U.S. REP. JOHN CULBERSON said about the cap & trade bill in a Houston newspaper. Culberson is a Republican and represents the 7th Congressional District of Texas.

President Barack Obama and liberals in Congress support federal regulation of carbon dioxide. Proponents of CO2 regulation claim that taxing polluters is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions, but the staggering costs of a cap-and-trade program will stifle our domestic energy and manufacturing sectors and result in major rate increases for consumers. The cap-and-trade plan should really be called “the light switch tax,” because if this bill becomes law, you will pay a tax every time you flip your light switch.

U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., recently introduced the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009, which would create a cap-and-trade program requiring CO2 emissions to be reduced 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. The bill would set up a cap-and-trade system that sets a limit (or cap) on total CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and establishes a yet-to-be-defined carbon allowance on each utility or company. Details such as cap levels and which companies are subject to allowances are still being finalized by Democrats, but the outcome looks grim for consumers.

Since fossil fuels supply 85 percent of U.S. energy demand, taxing one of the most vital and productive sectors of our economy will only prolong and deepen the current recession. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis’ study of the Lieberman–Warner cap-and-trade bill (a bill rejected by the Senate last year) found that the legislation would result in total GDP losses of nearly $5 trillion and job losses of 400,000 to 800,000 per year. The ACES Act is more restrictive and would cause even greater economic damage. The cost to Texas ratepayers alone could reach $20 billion in added electricity costs, which is an increase of more than $600 per year in utility bills, according to a study commissioned by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that under a cap-and-trade program, companies would ultimately pass these costs along to their customers in the form of higher rates. CBO notes, “Regardless of how the allowances were distributed, most of the cost of meeting a cap on CO2 emissions would be borne by consumers who would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline.”

The reason for these dramatic cost increases is simple: The technology to comply with the steep renewable requirements in this bill does not exist today. The Waxman-Markey bill requires that 20 percent of electricity production comes from renewable sources (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.) by 2020. Today Americans get less than 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources and the technological advancements, transmission capability and commercial availability needed to meet these lofty standards are years, even decades away.

Economists estimate that consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of our economy. While our economy is struggling to recover from recession, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on American consumers, which is why I am a cosponsor of the American Energy Innovation Act. This fiscally responsible approach encourages innovation by investing in renewable energy technology, promotes conservation by providing incentives for reducing energy demand and increases production of American energy by utilizing available resources and streamlining burdensome regulations. These steps will make America energy self-sufficient and improve our environment in the process.

This should get you thinking! You should understand that this is going to send our energy rates right through the roof if this bill passes. Read the rest of this blog to learn how solar and wind energy can benefit you greatly. I don’t want to get to political here but I think anything good the current administration does for us is going to cost US big time. We are going to pay through the nose. Once they take from you do you think you are going to get it back?

You can get solar and windmill kits. This will cost you more than if you build them yourself from scratch. Check out the resources/partner reviews page for more information on the benefits of DYI solar panels or wind turbines will do for you. You can also have a professional build and install your solar panels or wind turbine but this is going to cost big time. At the very least $5000.00 and up from there! Your best bet is to build them yourself cheap.

It’s easy to learn how to build and install your own windmills and solar panels. Learn how you can make money selling the unused energy back to the electric company. You can even set up your own little business building solar panels and windmills and selling and installing them so check out Earth4Energy today to learn more!

If you have not yet decided to reduce your electricity bills, here is an excellent opportunity for you to build your own home solar power system and start generating electricity. The electricity we get through our own home solar power system is absolutely free, however an initial investment is required for building and installing the system. Check out Earth4Energy on our resource/partners review page for more details on building your own solar panels and wind turbines

Once you build and install your own solar power system, you have an opportunity to reduce your monthly bill by as much as 80 percent. A few people, whose electricity requirement is not so high, are even producing electricity in excess and selling the surplus to electricity marketing companies.

Ready made home solar power systems are available in the market, however the cost of these are very high, in the range of few thousand dollars and up. Instead of using a ready made system, you can build your own home solar power systems for less than $200. The raw material is easily available at your nearby electrical shop and hardware store. Once you buy the raw material, you will need the detailed instructions so that you can build and install the system your own. One of the best guides available is Earth4Energy.

You should ensure that you place the home solar power system either on your roof or in your backyard in a slanting position so that the panels absorb highest amount of solar heat and thus converts the maximum heat into electricity. So, if you reside in a hot sunny area, you are going to produce the highest amount of electricity from your own home solar power system. They can even be built to follow the sun.