Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is using a quantum computer to develop new radar and aircraft systems, the New York Times reports. The use cases show commercial adoption is getting closer. Read more »
With the growth of sensors and microelectronics, the potential uses of wearable-computing technologies now reach to health and fitness, gaming, fashion, disabilities and augmented reality. Most importantly, the widespread adoption of wearables will drive the form function and market for mobiles in vital ways. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
My organization, The Carbon War Room, has put together a consortium to tackle, as was reported this week: “one of the nation’s biggest energy problems — waste in older buildings — without new money from Washington.” Read more »
Millennials — workers between the ages of 20 and 29 who grew up with ubiquitous cell phone and Internet availability — are now a dominant force in today’s enterprise. Is your company ready for them? This report, the second in a two-part series, examines the tensions ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Web companies like Google and Facebook gain business advantage by analyzing large volumes of rapidly changing data about their users, but they are far from alone. A recent infographic from Get Satisfaction charts the volume of data stored in 17 key industry sectors, illustrating that most ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This week, the Open Data Center Alliance released its first deliverables to the world, with the aim to make it easier to compare and contrast commercial solutions and increase technical interoperability between clouds. But to reach new standards, the alliance must overcome significant challenges. Read more »
Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
One of the issues with many of the popular enterprise social networking apps is the loss of control. Commercially-sensitive information being being stored on someone else’s servers tends to make corporate IT nervous. How about a self-hosted, open-source solution instead? Read more »
Will demand response move to the cloud? Lockheed Martin is linking demand response with a cloud-based smart meter platform for cooperative utilities, and EnerNOC is turning to Salesforce.com for smart grid-customer interaction. Read more »
Johnson Controls is buying up Campbell, Calif.-based EnergyConnect, one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes players in demand response software for the customer as well as the utility. Read more »
Facebook has been called out by Greenpeace for not doing enough to promote renewable energy, so what is the company going to do with this public relations dilemma? Launching its own Facebook page and joining groups to demonstrate its green cred, of course. Read more »
Lockheed Martin has turned to the smart grid with a vengeance. The gigantic defense contractor has been helping utilities design, manage and secure smart meter networks, distribution grid sensor systems and microgrids for years, but in the past year has ramped up its efforts. Read more »
OpenADR may be the open demand response technology of the future, but right now one vendor — Honeywell — has a lock on the market. That may be about to change, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Honeywell bought a lock on a key piece of technology for OpenADR deployments when it bought Akuacom this summer. But challengers are emerging with OpenADR server products of their own. Read more »
Smart grid trade show GridWeek is wrapping up in Washington D.C., but the hard work of integrating all the hardware and software on display has just begun. Read more »
New smart grid technologies promise to widen the reach of demand response, but what if that process works in reverse? Big demand response players are leveraging their middleman role between utilities and customers to bring their technology in as a “back-door” smart grid conduit between the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big demand response players are leveraging their middleman role between utilities and customers to apply their technology in to fields traditionally defined as smart grid. Given the way the market is developing, they may have little choice. Read more »
Adding digital intelligence to the power grid is a complex and unfamiliar task for utilities, and they’re going to need a lot of hand holding. That’s going to drive the “smart grid managed services” market to more than $4.3 billion in global revenue by 2015. Read more »
Distributech, the once-sleepy power grid trade show, has been transformed into a high-profile smart grid showcase over the past couple of years — this year’s show in Tampa, Fla. is no exception. Here’s 10 things you should pay attention to coming outta Distributech this year. Read more »
Military bases have been some of the pioneers for so-called microgrids — systems of self-generated electricity and intelligent controls that can be disconnected from the grid at large to keep the lights on when the utility can’t provide power. The idea is that a tree falling on […] Read more »
