Comverge Gets Another Smart Meter Management Deal

By Jeff St. John

Comverge (COMV) has landed another deal that calls for it to turn down homes' energy use during peak demand times with pagers at first, and with smart meters later on.The deal is with Dominion Virginia Power (D), and calls for Comverge to manage about 117 megawatts of commercial and industrial power loads.

Comverge will also provide its Apollo software platform to manage demand response devices for about 150,000 homes – representing roughly 150 megawatts of power use – which the utility wants to hook up with smart meters eventually.

The idea is to turn down home air conditioners, water heaters and pool pumps – the devices Comverge can now control – using its existing mainly pager-based communication system at first, said Mike Picchi, Comverge's interim president and CEO.

Then, as Dominion rolls out its smart meters, made by German manufacturer Elster, Comverge will switch over to using them as the gateway into the home instead, Picchi said. Comverge's Apollo software can manage both means of control, he said (see Green Light post).

• The East Hanover, N.J.-based demand response provider has a similar contract with Pepco Holdings Inc., which plans to give its 1.9 million customers General Electric smart meters enabled with Silver Spring Networks communications gear over the next four years.
  
• Comverge also is working with smart meter maker Itron to link its smart meters to Comverge's set of ZigBee-enabled thermostats and other systems. In Texas, it's working on integrating its systems with smart meters from Landis+Gyr, Picchi said.
  
• After all, while every utility installing smart meters says they'll eventually be able to turn down home energy use, none have done so in a full-scale commercial deployment, he said (see The Elusive Smart Meter-Demand Response Combo).
  
• That gives utilities like Pepco and Dominion a short-term choice, he said - wait for smart meters to be in place to start controlling home energy use, or turn to Comverge's existing set of programs, which range from turnkey systems that utilities can control to those managed by Comverge itself.
  
• Comverge mainly controls power in commercial and industrial facilities, a market it shares with demand response competitors such as EnerNoc Inc. (ENOC), CPower, EnergyConnect and Constellation NewEnergy (see Green Light post).

The idea is to turn down energy use when utilities are facing peak demand, saving the cost of building and buying power from "peaker" plants that may need to run only a few hundred hours every year.
But Comverge distinguishes itself from those competitors in that about a quarter of its more than 3,000 megawatts under management come from homes.

Other residential demand response programs exist out there, but most are managed directly by utilities, though Cooper Power Systems does residential demand response work as well.

Big facilities and offices are easier to manage when it comes to demand response – they're bigger targets, and they tend to have staff, and some form of building control system, already in place to carry out the task.

Whether or not millions of homes can be as efficiently networked and controlled for peak demand reduction is a big question in the demand response field (see Demand Response: The Home vs. C&I Debate).

The Electric Power Research Institute predicted in January that the residential, commercial and industrial sectors would roughly share the market for demand response over the coming decades. But expanding the residential share of the pie will require a whole new host of technologies – and business models and regulatory structures – to get there.

One uncertainty is how to get the homeowner involved. Most of Comverge's existing residential demand response programs involve homeowners that sign up for cheaper power in exchange for giving the utility the power to adjust their thermostats for them.

But such direct load control could well give way to using the millions of smart meters being deployed across the United States to offer homeowners a wider variety of options (see 8.3M Smart Meters and Counting in U.S.)

In particular, direct utility control is being downplayed by many of the companies looking to the next generation of smart meters to enable their home energy management offerings (see The Smart Home, Part I).

The idea is that giving customers some kind of control – even if it's only control over choosing settings that automatically turn down stuff via utility commands anyway – is likely to be more popular with utility customers, as well as the regulatory bodies that tell utilities how they can spend their money.

Simply giving customers a view into their energy use can yield big savings, according to many pilot trials of in-home energy devices (see Smart Grid: Test Customers Give Thumbs Up).

And the host of companies looking to make such in-home energy display systems is expanding rapidly, with dozens of startups such as Tendril Networks, EnergyHub, Energate, Control4, Greenbox Technology, Onzo, AlertMe, eMeter and OpenPeak all competing with each other, as well as new home energy systems from Google, Microsoft and Cisco, for utilities' favor (see stories here, here and here).

Some of those systems extend beyond providing information to actual control over home energy suckers, using digital thermostats or "smart plugs" that turn power on and off at the wall socket. Those can be controlled with or without utility involvement, though analysts predict it will take subsidies from utilities – or perhaps a move by telecommunications companies to add them on to existing home entertainment and security systems – to make them more widely popular (see The Telco Home Energy Invasion).

Using smart meters to send pricing signals that encourage people to cut down on using power when its most expensive could be one way to do that. Many utilities are testing such pricing schemes in pilot projects. Some, such as Arizona utilities Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service and a host of utilities in Canada's Ontario province, such as Milton Hydro, are trying them out in a more widespread fashion.

In the meantime, General Electric and Whirlpool are planning to make smart appliances that can power down in response to utility or homeowner controls, though how fast those could come to market will depend on how quickly utilities settle on a standard set of technologies (see GE's Smart Appliances: Smarter With GE Home Energy Manager).

The question of standards and technologies, in turn, is likely to be guided by emerging guidelines for the $3.9 billion in federal stimulus grants directed at smart grid projects, including smart meter deployments (see DOE Hands Out $47M for Smart Grid Demos).

The Rest @ Seeking Alpha

Solar Shake Out- Who Will Survive?

Until the big chill, the solar energy was red-hot, tearing along with a decade-long growth rate that averaged 50 percent a year.

Then the global recession hit – and the fizzling of subsidies in Spain and a credit crunch – which squeezed financing for many solar projects. Production slowed at plants making panels that turned sun into electricity. Prices fell sharply.

So now, despite climate-change legislation in the United States and a push for cleaner energy worldwide, a global industry shakeout looms, many analysts predict. And not a small shudder. They anticipate an earthquake of consolidation likely to leave only strong competitors standing.

Currently, some 250 companies around the world make solar photovoltaic modules.

• “In five years, there probably can be only a couple of dozen of them,” says Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development in Chicago. “At most.”
  
  Which companies will be the winners? The ones with deep pockets, cutting-edge technology, and a rigorous focus on cutting costs.

They’ll need to be big enough to build a brand name and demonstrate staying power. As close observers explain, customers want to know that the solar-energy companies they buy from today will be around to honor their warranties in the future.

Although opinions differ on who the winners will be, four names keep popping up:

• First Solar Inc.
• SunPower Corp., both based in the US;
• Sharp Corp., headquartered in Japan; and
• SunTech Power Holdings in China.
  
  In their own way, these firms have already distinguished themselves in a crowded field. If they do emerge as winners, their host countries can probably bank on building networks of solar-energy related suppliers around them, analysts say.
  
  Various kinds of solar technologies exist – from simple hot-water heaters for homes and pools to multiacre installations that can generate electricity on a utility scale. But it is photovoltaic (PV) technology, which turns sunlight directly into electricity, that’s the fastest-growing technology – and is already the largest component of the solar market in the US, according to the American Solar Energy Society, in Boulder, Colo.
  
  Here’s a look at the four potential winners in the coming shakeout.
  
  Leader in thin films
  
  
  Within the PV industry, First Solar has been the model for how to succeed with innovation, many observers hold.
  
  “There’s no doubt in my mind that First Solar offers the industry’s best quality management and the best quality product at the best relative value,” says Matthew Patsky, portfolio manager of Winslow Green Mutual Funds, in Boston.
  
  Formed in 1999, the Tempe, Ariz., solar company burst onto the scene with a type of thin-film technology called cadmium telluride. Although less efficient than traditional silicon-based PV panels, thin-film modules cost substantially less to produce.
• Last year, First Solar had $1.2 billion of sales and a $348.3 million profit. (That 2008 profit level was more than double the prior year’s earnings.)
  
  “Thin films came into production during the boom period in the industry’s growth, which allowed for higher-risk new technology. But First Solar was the only one to establish itself successfully during that boom,” says Ken Zweibel, director of the George Washington University Solar Institute in Washington, D.C.
  
  While competition has been rising in the thin-film sector, First Solar has continued to sustain its leadership, analysts say. It “is the only company in the world that’s been able to produce solar modules at less than $1 per watt,” says Shyam Mehta, senior solar analyst at GTM Research, a market-research firm based in Cambridge, Mass. “And [it] is on its way to producing solar electricity at rates competitive with electricity from fossil fuels.”
  
  
• First Solar has reported that in this year’s first quarter, its manufacturing cost had fallen to an industry-leading 93 cents per watt.
• All the while, it’s been enjoying eye-popping profit margins and is operating at full capacity.
  
  Efficiency, efficiency
  
  
  If First Solar can boast about cost, SunPower Corp. offers efficiency. Its products have the industry’s highest degree of “conversion efficiency,” meaning how much sunlight they convert into electricity. Incorporated in 1985, the San Jose, Calif., company claims its solar panels are up to 50 percent more efficient than conventional solar panels and 100 to 300 percent more efficient than thin-film modules. That means its installations require “substantially less room on a roof to get the same amount of electricity,” says Julie Blunden, SunPower’s vice president of public policy and corporate communications.
  
  Starting next year, the company plans to offer a “Generation 3” solar cell with a 23.4 percent efficiency, reports GTM Research.
  
  To be sure, the company did post a roughly $4.8 million net income loss on $214 million of sales in this year’s first quarter. That was a “tough” period “for everybody because prices came down so fast,” says Brion Tanous, solar energy industry analyst at Merriman Curhan Ford, an investment firm in San Francisco. However, he notes that the bulk of analysts expect SunPower to bounce back to profitability soon. (It was due to release its second-quarter results on July 23.)
  
  “We have made commitments to our investors and customers that we would lower our cost of solar-system installation 50 percent between 2006 and 2012,” Ms. Blunden says. “By 2010, we’ll be two-thirds of the way” toward that goal.
  
  A solar giant
  
  Sharp Corp., based in Osaka, Japan, is relying on its size and experience to survive in the business long term. It began mass-producing solar cells 46 years ago, initially to electrify Japanese lighthouses. For most of this decade, it claimed to be the world’s biggest producer of crystalline silicon cells and, by 2007, to have produced 2 gigawatts’ worth (1 million kilowatts) of solar cells – one-quarter of the world’s total PV output.
  
  Clearly, Sharp benefits from the overall corporation’s mega size.
  
  “From its parent, it has an extraordinary amount of resources,” says Mr. Bradford of Prometheus. The electronics giant “can deploy engineers and process capital on a scale that none of the rest of these companies can.”
  
  Expanding beyond more traditional solar offerings, Sharp is pushing aggressively into thin films.
• According to published reports, it aims to secure a bigger than 50 percent market share of this sector by 2012.
• Already, it has an annual production capacity of 160 megawatts of amorphous silicon-based thin-film panels and is scheduled to open a new 480-megawatt-per-year plant in Sakai City, Japan, next March.
  
  A low-cost leader
  
  Based in Wuxi, China, the $1.9 billion SunTech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. enjoys some indisputable advantages: a huge supply of low-cost labor and a supportive banking system. “Our real strength is our ability to deliver products at very low cost that are also very high quality,” says Steve Chadima, SunTech’s vice president for external affairs.
  
• Founded in 2001, it has grown with lightning speed, it says, to become the “largest supplier of solar panels in the world” with 1 gigawatt of PV cells and module production capacity.

• Taking on the high-efficiency market, the company is steadily converting to the use of a new technology it calls Pluto. The technology allows solar panels to convert 19 percent of sunlight hitting its monocrystalline panels, and 17 percent of sunlight with the polycrystalline panels, into energy.
  
  To be sure, SunTech has incurred substantial debt used to fund its rapid expansion. But observers believe that issue shouldn’t dim SunTech’s long-term prospects: Looking into the future, China’s domestic demand for solar energy is widely expected to surge. If so, SunTech could be well-positioned to capture market share in China.

The Rest @ the Christian Science Monitor

NAHB Responds to the Stimulus

The $787 billion economic stimulus package signed into law on Feb. 17 by President Barack Obama contains elements that will bolster housing and the economy, according to NAHB.

“While we believe that including a more enhanced home buyer tax credit in the final legislation would have been the best way to spur housing demand and move the economy forward, the new law does include several provisions that should help to put housing and the economy on the right track,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson.

Chief among these is an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit for qualified home purchases in 2009. To encourage prospective home buyers to get off the fence, the tax credit:

• Does not have to be repaid
• Is fully refundable
• Will remain in effect until Dec. 1, 2009 so that consumers can utilize it during the critical summer and fall home-buying months
• Allows tax credit home buyers to participate in the mortgage revenue bond program
• Permits state housing finance agencies to help buyers at closing by advancing the credit amount as a loan using tax-exempt bond proceeds
  
  More information on the first-time home buyer tax credit

Other important components in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will help small businesses and bolster the housing market.

The legislation will:

• Help home borrowers by restoring the higher 2008 FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits through the end of this year (the limit will return to $729,750 from the current $625,500 in the highest cost markets, and will also rise in many other areas because the 2008 maximums were based on a more generous formula and, for most areas, higher median prices)
• Temporarily allow exchange of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocating authority for tax-exempt grants and it appropriates $2 billion in HOME funding for affordable housing projects
• Provide up to a 10-year deferral of tax due to business debt restructuring
• Expand the net operating loss carry-back period from two years to five years for small businesses (businesses with average gross receipts of no more than $15 million over the prior three years) for losses arising in tax year 2008
• Extend the 25C existing home remodeler credit through the end of 2010, increase the credit rate from 10% to 30%, raise the lifetime cap from $500 to $1,500 and expand the set of qualifying property
• Provide an Alternative Minimum Tax patch for tax year 2009
• Increase bonus depreciation and Section 179 small business expensing for business investment in 2009
  
  view a one-page summary of the key housing provisions in the legislation.

Source Article from NAHB News

by Greg Brown at NAHB or call him at 800-368-5242 x8421.

The Environmental Tracking Network (ETNNA)

is a voluntary association of certificate tracking systems, regulators and interested market participants that are vested in preventing double-counting and promoting harmonization among certificate tracking systems and emissions registries in North America. Such harmonization will encourage trade, create a common currency for certificates, prevent double counting, and support new and emerging markets.

Visit U.S. DOE EERE Green

Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG)

OREG

The Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG) aligns industry, academia and government to ensure that Canada is a leader in providing ocean energy solutions to a world market.

OREG is a national organization, with over 115 Canadian and international members.


Ocean Energy

Ocean Energy in Canada information pamphlet

The term “ocean energy” is used to describe the harnessing of power found in ocean waves, tidal flows, and salinity and temperature gradients.

• Wave energy can be considered a concentrated form of solar energy.
• The sun's radiation heats the surface of the ocean creating wind, which in turn creates waves.
• Regions considered to have “good” wave energy resources are generally those found within 40 to 60 degrees of latitude, where the strongest winds are found.
• The largest waves are formed in regions where the wind blows over the water the furthest, the longest "fetch", often the west coasts of continents.

• Modern tidal technology developments are focusing on the harnessing of tidal "streams" or "currents". These are found in regions with high tidal ranges and natural constrictions such as straights, narrows or fjords. This movement of water is also enhanced by the differential heating of the ocean water column which creates deep water currents.
• There are numerous methods of harnessing wave and tidal energy that are currently under various stages of R&D and demonstration. For more information on any of these technologies please see our library.

Excellent resources on ocean energy are available at:

British Wind Energy Association Marine Renewable Energy
MMS Ocean Energy Kids Brochure
World Energy Council Survey of Energy Resources
California Energy Commission
The Carbon Trust - Technical Overview of Wave and Tidal Stream Energy
Wave Energy Centre Ocean Energy Glossary

Source Ocean Renewable Energy Group

Ammonia Fuel Network

Ammonia Fuel Network

Mission: To promote the implementation of anhydrous ammonia as an affordable, sustainable, carbon-free fuel for transportation and stationary power applications, thereby enhancing economic security, reducing fossil-fuel dependence, and helping save the environment.

• Anhydrous ammonia is an ultra-clean, energy-dense alternative liquid fuel.

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info@ammoniafuelnetwork.org

Solar News

According to a July 2008 IREC Report:

• over 80,000 solar installations were completed in 2007.
• The average size of a grid-connected PV residential installation has grown steadily from 2.2 kW to over 4.7 kW from 1998 to 2008.
• The size of a non-residential system has also been growing in recent years with an average of 67 kW DC in 2007.

Source NABCEP

U.S. Green Building Council

U.S. Green Building Council

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UN NGO Committee On Sustainable Development

United Nations NGO Committee On Sustainable Development

The future of humanity depends on our ability to develop in a sustainable way. The UN NGO Committee supports the integration of the three components of sustainable development — economic development, social development and environmental protection — as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars.

Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association

Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association

The Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association (TREIA) is a non-profit 501(C)(6) trade association established in 1984.

TREIA’s stated purpose is “To promote the common business interest and to improve the business conditions of persons in Texas engaged in renewable energy industries.”

TREIA supports its members in numerous ways, including trade shows, conferences, workshops, and business referrals.

Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) promotes energy efficiency for a cleaner environment, a more prosperous economy, and a higher quality of life in the Southeastern region of the United States.

Based in Atlanta, and working in eleven states, SEEA brings together businesses, utilities, governments, public utility commissions, energy service companies, manufacturers, retailers, and others.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership

The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership's (REEEP) goal is to accelerate the global market for sustainable energy by acting as an international and regional enabler, multiplier and catalyst to change and develop sustainable energy systems.

REEEP works with Governments, Businesses, Industry, Financiers and Civil Society across the world in order to expand the global market for renewable energy.

The Need Project

The Need Project

The NEED Project is dedicated to promoting a realistic understanding of energy.

• The NEED program includes curriculum materials, professional development, evaluation tools, and recognition.
• NEED teaches the scientific concepts of energy, provides objective information about energy sources and includes information to educate students about energy efficiency and conservation.

National Venture Capital Association

National Venture Capital Association

The NVCA represents approximately 480 venture capital firms in the United States and is committed to advancing those public policies that are conducive to innovation, entrepreneurship, and US competitiveness.

National Association of State Energy Officials

National Association of State Energy Officials

NASEO is the only organization representing the nation's state and territory energy officials. We work with states on energy efficiency and renewable energy program implementation, dissemination, best practices and technical assistance.

Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council

Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council T

he Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council (MSHBC) is a 501 (c) 6 non profit trade association representing a diverse membership of industry, academic, and government leaders whose aim is to build a business base for hydrogen energy in the mountain states of the US west.

The MSHBC exists to promote the business interests of its members, facilitate joint efforts and to advocate for state and regional legislative activities that remove or mitigate barriers to the commercialization of hydrogen energy.

Latin American Wind Energy Association (LAWEA)

Latin American Wind Energy Association (LAWEA)

The Latin America Wind Energy Association is non profit organization working fot the promotion of Wind Power in Latin America.

Our members are committed with the development of this Renewable Energy in the region.LAWEA also hosts the main Wind Power show in Latin America, WIND EXPO www.windexpo.org.

International Green Energy Council

International Green Energy Council
The mission of the International Green Energy Council is to provide advice and to render opinions pertaining to all of the issues affecting the “Green” industry Internationally and on all Federal, state, county and municipal levels of government;

• to maintain surveillance, review and analysis of all governmental activities, whether International. federal, state, county or local in nature, which affect the “Green” industry, whether legislative, executive or judicial in form and scope;
• to maintain liaison with all levels of government; and to initiate, defend, and otherwise support environmentally sound initiatives that support sustainable energy practices and the sustainable industry in all its forms.

iCAST

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We work on projects ranging from developing renewable energies to creating sustainable economic business.

iCAST employs a service learning component in all is projects where students from around the world collaborate to find solutions for real-world problems.

Hydrogen Energy Center

Hydrogen Energy Center

Founded in 1991, the Hydrogen Energy Center is an all-volunteer non-profit dedicated to advancing the transition a renewable hydrogen economy through education, demonstration, and advocacy. HEC's emphasis is on connecting renewable energy sources with hydrogen for energy storage and distribution.