GigaOM » New Mexico

Japan-U.S. smart grid project now live in New Mexico

Ucilia Wang — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:00:09 +0000

A smart grid project that has been under development for over a year, created by a collaboration of Japanese and U.S. companies, is now live in New Mexico. The demonstration project promises to help solve some thorny problems with adding more renewable energy into the power grid.

The network will test out solar power, energy storage and electric grid management and produce data and analyses over the next six months, said Japanese solar panel maker, Kyocera, which is taking part in the project. The project also involves the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities. NEDO itself is a group of government, research institutions and private tech companies such as Kyocera, Toshiba and Hitachi.

The participants held a ceremony this week to kick off the operation of the $52 million project, which involves a micro-grid and a “smart house” demonstration in Los Alamos. The Japanese consortium also is working on a smart building project in a mixed-use community in Albuquerque called Mesa del Sol.

NEDO and its affiliated Japanese companies decided to head to New Mexico to test smart grid technologies with the local utility in Los Alamos partly because Japanese utilities aren’t as flexible or able to act as quickly to accommodate the project, according to this 2011 presentation by the Los Alamos utility company. The Japanese companies also want to sell their technologies in the U.S. and take an active role in setting international technical standards for smart grid. The Los Alamos lab will help with data collection, management and modeling.

The consortium conceived of the project a few years back and signed an agreement to carry it out in 2010. While the goal back then included an intent to tackle the U.S. market, the results from the project could serve Japan as well, particularly since the country has been keen on boosting renewable energy generation ever since its Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in March 2011. Kyocera, for example, earlier this year announced a plan to sell solar energy systems with batteries to homeowners in Japan.

Adding more renewable energy into the grid presents technical and operational challenges for utilities and grid operators. Solar and wind power, for example, can only be generated at certain hours of the day and night, and weather conditions have a big impact on their production rates. Since an electric grid works best when there is a balance of supply and demand, grid operators have to figure out how to make up for any short fall or surge of renewable energy that could happen at any time. Power plants that use coal, natural gas and nuclear, on the other hand, can produce a steady stream of power.

Many other utilities and tech companies are carrying out similar demonstration projects in the U.S. in order to meet their state mandates to increasing the use of renewable energy.

One of the two projects underway within Los Alamos utility’s territory creates a micro-grid using a 1 MW solar energy system and a 1.8 MW/8.3 Mwh battery system. The solar energy will course through a particular distribution line to test its impact on the grid.

The second project will put solar panels on a home, which has been built especially for the project (check out the Los Alamos Daily Post’s report), and pairs the solar system by Kyocera with a 24 kWh lithium-ion battery system, a heat pump storage unit, and sensors and communication equipment. The idea is to figure out how to operate all this equipment to meet the energy demand of the home and respond to any requests from the utility or grid operator to use the solar electricity for balancing the grid.

Photo courtesy of Kyocera

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WWD Weekend Reading List

Edit Staff — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:05:50 +0000

Here are some interesting posts from around the ‘Net to catch up with over the weekend:

$10,000 LPs Now Playing at the iTunes Store

Charles Jade — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:23:54 +0000

Introduced by none other than Steve Jobs at the Apple Music Event last month, the iTunes LP adds content like lyrics, liner notes, animation, and video interviews to the traditional album for a little more money, at least for the consumer. It turns out Apple is charging artists $10,000 in production costs for creating an iTunes LP.

That’s what Brian McKinney of indie label Chocolate Lab Records told Gizmodo. McKinney sought information on how one went about making an iTunes LP, and it was relayed to him from an iTunes Store representative that “LPs aren’t being offered to indies and that there are only about 12 LPs being offered right now.” And that Apple is charging $10,000 in production fees.

If that sounds a tad high for your average indie band practically living out of the back of a van, perhaps that’s why there are so few iTunes LPs available a month after format was introduced. To contrast that with another Apple initiative, the App Store, it opened with 500 apps, and less than a week later had nearly a thousand.

If you are looking for a rationale as to why it’s impossible to put together some songs, videos, and lyrics for less than $10,000, don’t look at me. AppleInsider has some steroidal-strength apologia on the topic, though, something about “quality assurance” and that Apple doesn’t “want the new format associated with music the mainstream market doesn’t care about.” It will be great later, though, “open standards” and all that. Let’s hope so, because right now it looks like Apple is channeling the ghost of Sony’s proprietary standards past.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes LP, he remarked that “some of us here are old enough that we actually bought LPs.” Some of us also remember sifting through boxes of LPs in record stores for hours and the joy of finding new music unlike anything we’d heard before. Unless Apple changes its policy, you’ll never have to worry about losing yourself among the virtual LPs at the iTunes Store.

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eSolar to Build Second Cali Solar Plant

Jennifer Kho — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:28:21 +0000

The deals keep coming for solar thermal startup eSolar, indicating confidence from utilities –- but also increasing pressure on the Pasadena, Calif.-based company to deliver quickly. The startup on Thursday announced plans to build a 92-megawatt plant in Lancaster, Calif. It has signed a deal to sell 92 megawatts of power to Alpine SunTower, a subsidiary of Princeton, N.J.-based energy company NRG Energy, which will supply the solar power to Northern California’s Pacific Gas and Electric.

The project mirrors another deal announced earlier this month, in which the company agreed to develop a 92-megawatt plant in southern New Mexico with NRG Energy for El Paso Electric. Both deals are part of the companies’ previously announced goal of developing up to 500 megawatts of solar thermal power in the United States. eSolar is also building a 245-megawatt solar thermal plant for Rosemead, Calif.-based utility Southern California Edison.

All these sales contracts are good news for eSolar, especially if it’s able to reduce its risk and cost by duplicating project designs. As it is, the 92-megawatt plants are made up of two modular 46-megawatt plants, intended to make it easier for the company to reach larger volumes. If it can deliver all these plants as promised, it will validate its claim that its approach allows for rapid deployment at low cost.

But the deals also up the ante for the company, as utilities are relying on it to deliver an increasing number of megawatts to meet state renewable energy standards in states like California and New Mexico. If utilities count on getting too many megawatts of capacity from the same company and that company -– in this case, eSolar — ends up not being able to deliver, the utilities could end up falling a good number of megawatts short (in eSolar’s case, 429 megawatts and counting).

Of course, utilities are signing many deals for newer, riskier technology (solar in space!), increasing the likelihood that some of those projects will fall through. Hopefully the wide variety will also make it more likely that most of them will actually succeed.

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Sunny New Mexico: eSolar, NRG to Develop Solar-Thermal Plant

Jennifer Kho — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:00:19 +0000

Concentrating solar-thermal company eSolar hasn’t been shy about taking on new projects. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company on Thursday announced another one: an agreement to develop a 92-megawatt plant in southern New Mexico with Princeton, N.J.-based energy company NRG Energy. The companies say they are ready to begin construction on the project, calling it “shovel-ready,” and expect it to be fully operational in the summer of 2011.

The announcement is part of the companies’ previously announced goal of developing up to 500 megawatts of solar-thermal power in the United States. This latest project is expected to be the first commercial solar-thermal plant in New Mexico, according to the companies, and will feed electricity to the El Paso Electric utility.

It also will be eSolar’s first project outside of California, although the company in March signed a deal for Gurgaon, India-based Acme Group to use eSolar technology to build up to 1 gigawatt of solar-thermal plants in India.

In addition, the company is supplying components — including its heliostats and suntracking technology — to fuel startup Sundrop Fuels. And it’s building a 245-megawatt solar-thermal plant for Rosemead, Calif.-based utility Southern California Edison.

That’s a lot for a 2-year-old startup to take on at once. But the company is making steady progress. Its Sierra project, a 5-megawatt demonstration plant in Southern California, has begun producing steam and is scheduled to be connected to the grid this summer, eSolar said Thursday. It had previously expected to have a plant up and running last year.

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New Mexico Utilities Bonding Over Solar Power Project

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:29:15 +0000

While solar projects are getting slated for the deserts of California and Arizona, New Mexico’s four largest utilities have done a public shout out to bring in a very large solar project to their state. El Paso Electric, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have issued a request for proposal for a solar power project that could deliver up to 375,000 megawatt-hours annually and power up to 52,000 homes. (hat tip UPI, GreenBiz).

The request asks solar developers to submit proposals for a project that would use solar parabolic trough technology, would be built in New Mexico and use thermal storage. If the utility group likes any of the submissions it will try to negotiate a contract by the end of 2008 and potentially turn on the clean power for New Mexico customers by the end of 2011. Interested solar companies read more here.

The New Mexico utilities’ announcement comes in the same week that the Bureau of Land Management did an about face and decided to continue to accept solar project applications on public land. Previously the Bureau had called for a freeze on all new solar projects on public lands until an environmental assessment could be done. The Bureau of Land Management oversees land in New Mexico.

Dozens of companies are rushing to build solar thermal power plants, which use the sun’s heat to boil liquid and produce steam that powers a turbine, in U.S. deserts. Check out our list of solar thermal companies that will likely bid on New Mexico’s proposal. (11 Solar Thermal Companies Powering Up).

Photo courtesy of Solel.

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TripSay Wants to be Your Travel Community

Dominic Rivera — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:00:49 +0000

TripSay, a Finland-based social network that boasts of offering travelers more value and activity-specific information than other travel communities, is expanding its private beta with a series of new features and invitation to WWD readers.

Here’s a rundown of the new features:
• Groups for sharing trip plans and destinations
• Activity Hub to show recent activities
• Recommendations for travel tips
• Leaderboard for content contributors and earned points
• Sharing favorite and dream destinations

TripSay, however, is not about getting the best price for your vacation but a community to get recommendations, reviews, budget estimates, and document your travel discoveries.

Because web workers need to travel and take a break also, TripSay is providing WWD with 500 invitations. Just send an email to info@tripsay.com with the subject GigaOM.

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Dell Tablet PC is looking a lot like the HP 2710p

James Kendrick — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

The user’s manual for the upcoming Dell XT Tablet PC has been uncovered and Rob Bushway of Gottabemobile has done a thorough job of analyzing it to share the features of this hotly awaited new Tablet. Leave it to Rob to actually read a manual for a device he doesn’t even have. :) I’ve gone through Rob’s analysis and what struck me most was that the Dell seems to me to be like the HP 2710p I enjoy for the most part. The processor options are like that on the HP, the screen resolution is the same, the main difference is the dual digitizer that will be available on the Dell. The Dell does include something I wish the HP had, scroll buttons on the screen. The HP can handle a maximum of 4 GB of memory while the Dell appears to top out at 3 GB. The pen on the Dell has two nibs, a hard standard nib and a soft one that feels like a felt tip pen which is a first as far as I am aware. Overall it’s looking like the two Tablets are much more similar than different so I have to hand it to HP for being the first to market with the 2710p. I know the design of the HP sure looks better than the Dell but I’d like to get one in my hands to see how that new Tablet will work. It’s pretty thin and light and should feel good to use in the hands. So let’s get that baby released, Dell!

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Apple releases first Leopard update

Josh Pigford — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:17:19 +0000

Apple is on a roll today, releasing a new version of Final Cut Express, as well as the last update to Tiger. Now, Apple has released its first update to their newest version of OS X, Leopard.

This update includes a slew of fixes mainly related to reliability and compatibility with the new features in Leopard and is now available in Software Update for download.

Let us know if you have any issues after the update is made or if this update fixes any issues you were having.

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Jeff Pulver on SBC Strategy

Om Malik — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 15:08:07 +0000

There is a reason why I refer to Jeff Pulver as “The Senator.” Consummate diplomat, he is the iron fist in velvet glove, the exact opposite of my nature. He has a nice take on SBC’s subtle takeover of the IP world. His is more in-depth take, and worth reading, and thinking about.

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