Power Grids: Making them smart and smarter
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
With increasing demand for power, it becomes necessary to optimize the utilization of electricity grid capacity. This is sought to be done by incorporating information technology solutions to measure and report, and to sense and self-heal into the grid. R&D in this area also seeks to increase the quantity of power transmitted through the lines.
Superconductive transmission lines can reduce power loss, and tackling bottlenecks in transmission where certain lines remain under-utilized owing to full capacity utilization of connecting lines can increase overall capacity. Instabilities in the system is another area that R&D focuses upon as these can reduce the effective capacity compared to the technical one.
Integrating power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power generators pose its own problems owing to the differing nature of current flow. Technical issues resulting from intermittency, ramp rates, over supply and inertia are the problems in this area, according to an article on integrating renewables at intelligentutility.com.
Smart meters that report power consumption levels to the supplying utility automatically, programmable thermostats that can automatically adjust power utilization and smart home appliances that reduce power consumption can all be part of the overall campaign for creating a smart grid.
The intelligentutility.com website has resources on the practical issues of smart grids.
Tags: energy efficiency, energy generation, information technology, power transmission
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Miniaturization Applications with Nanotechnology
Monday, July 19th, 2010
A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter and objects of nanoscale are invisible to the human eye. Yet these invisible objects could be of immense use in different areas. Some recent developments at the University of Utah point to some of these possibilities.
One researcher is developing a nanotech torch that is invisible but could make it possible to avoid the waste incurred during the production of electronic chips. By depositing and erasing materials at the precise locations where they are needed, not only is waste avoided but the size of the chip also gets much smaller.
With these small chips, it becomes possible to develop much more compact devices such as GPS units and cell phones.
The Utah University team is also developing a nano tuning fork that can help reduce power consumption. These are nanoscale mechanical switches that can, for example, prevent laptop computers from overheating, eliminate wasted energy and keep the battery charged for longer periods.
The research team at the university has received a $3 million, three year federal DARPA grant for nanotechnology research and the faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering working on these projects constitute the Wireless Nanosystems research team.
Read the news at UtahPulse.
Tags: eliminating waste, energy efficiency, nano device, nanotechnology
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Challenge to develop the next Generation Power Grid
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
General Electric, in partnership with venture capital firms Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital have announced a $200 million innovation challenge. The challenge asks technologists, entrepreneurs and startups to share their best ideas for an electric power grid that will meet the needs of the 21st century. The challenge, announced on July 13, 2010, is named as “GE ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid.”
The challenge, open immediately at Ecomagination Website is reportedly one of the largest of challenges ever announced.
The goals are to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint during electricity generation, optimize the flow of energy through distribution systems to minimize power losses and use energy more efficiently through better designed buildings and in other ways.
GE is already offering digital energy grids and wants to make it a comprehensive one by working with ideas generated globally. By accelerating the development of a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable grid through collaboration, GE hopes to “jump-start new ideas and deploy them on a scale that will modernize the electrical grid around the world.”
The fund of $200 million will be invested globally into promising startups and ideas. GE will also help the entrants in other ways. Read the news release at MarketWatch.
Tags: cleaner energy generation, digital electricity grids, energy efficiency, power transmission losses
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