Comments on: OPINION: A Reality Check & Investment Strategies for the Smart Grid

By: robertras

robertras — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:17:24 +0000

Thanks Bill. These are some great ideas and tips. I’ve always thought that we need to embrace nuclear energy. The amount of accidents in regard to it are VERY low, and the output of energy is extremely great. Sorry, I don’t have the time to find links and such, but we talked about it at school with one of the professors.

By: What A Price on Carbon Would Cost Data Center Operators

What A Price on Carbon Would Cost Data Center Operators — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:39:46 +0000

[...] the giant Internet companies that will be affected. But any organization that uses computing power. Bill Arnaud, former Chief Research Officer for CANARIE Inc. Canada’s Advanced Internet Development [...]

By: スマートグリッドを実験する « yuheibird makes a scrapbook

スマートグリッドを実験する « yuheibird makes a scrapbook — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:01:22 +0000

[...] http://earth2tech.com/2010/04/06/opinion-a-reality-check-investment-strategies-for-the-smart-grid/ [...]

By: Kevin S

Kevin S — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:32:24 +0000

The DOE data you refer to only shows the price of electricity adjusted for inflation up until 1999. If you look at the data since 1999 – http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_3.html – prices have risen (across all sectors) 49% from 1999 – 2009. And inflation over those 10 years (using data from – http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_rate/CurrentInflation.asp) was 29%. Hence electricity prices have increased faster than inflation over the past 10 years, and my understanding from all the smart grid conferences I have attended over the last year, the expert opinion from those in and monitoring the utility industry, is that trend is expected to continue, or even accelerate.

By: How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market | BLACKHORSEGEEK

How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market | BLACKHORSEGEEK — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:10:03 +0000

[...] The home energy market is a nascent ecosystem that’s made up of: utilities that are trying get their customers to consume less energy, startups building smart energy software and energy dashboards that will manage energy data in the home and help customers consume less, large manufacturers dabbling in connected appliances, and investors looking for ways to make money (a dose of skepticism here). [...]

By: How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market « Apple News Daily

How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market « Apple News Daily — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:28:46 +0000

By: Investment

Investment — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:09:43 +0000

I am not a techie and my first reaction was to close the window of this blog. But one phrase "Investment Strategies for smart grid" in the header caught my attention. I am a new investor who has a lot of hope on future development of "alternative energy industry". I try to read almost anything on this topic, and what happened; I came across this gem of an article.

The way Bill has explained his skepticism on smart grids, then his change of notion and understanding in favor of smart grids and at the last his own ideas to the entrepreneurs to build focused investment strategies for development of power grids is excellent.

The relationship between prices of electricity falling on supply end and on the other end the fossil fuels getting scarce each day (leave aside their ever increasing price) is making the margins to fall to even negative levels.

This article has showed an excellent vision for smart grids to start measuring power by distinguishing the "source of power".

An extremely futuristic content. thanks.

By: How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market

How the iPad Could Disrupt the Home Energy Market — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:31:07 +0000

[...] OPINION: A Reality Check & Investment Strategies for the Smart Grid [...]

By: Bill St Arnaud

Bill St Arnaud — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:28:26 +0000

For an electric co-op, demand management may make sense as they dont have to buy peak power from outside sources. But if they have their own generating plant with surplus capacity the incentive for demand management disappears

Bill

By: Bill St Arnaud

Bill St Arnaud — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:25:28 +0000

Please see EIA data on price of electricity corrected for inflation. Since 1960 real price of electricity has remained unchanged or even declined – http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/fact_sheets/retailprice.html
Some renewable energy is expensive – such as solar panels. But windmill and micro-hydro generated electricity can be cheaper than coal, as long as you dont connect to the utility grid. Interconnection and wheeling charges significantly raise cost of renewable enery