White House Feels Heat On HAN Standards

May 28, 2010

The White House is feeling industry pressure to complete an initial set of HAN standards as fears of a smart-grid information bottleneck grow.

Pressure falls on NIST to finalize home area network standards for smart grid

The heat is coming from appliances manufacturers who hope to enlist administration support in the National Institute of Standards and Technology review now underway to assure interoperability among competing standards and protocols.

NIST published a “roadmap” document in January with a preferred list of smart grid and home area network standards, but a schedule for final selection doesn’t appear to be in place. The aim of the review is prevent market confusion and divergence, and to promote open communications. NIST hopes to establish 77 smart-gird standards over the next few years with 14 this year.

“This has to be done as quickly as possible, “ concedes John McDonald, a general manager at GE and chair of the governing board of NIST’s Smart Grid Interoperability Panel. “There has been a lot of pressure at the White House.”

Among the leading candidates in the initial HAN standards race are the wireless technologies Zigbee and Wi-Fi and the powerline technology HomePlug. Determining a final list will provide big benefits if utilities are to deliver on the promise of demand response and greater system efficiency. Utilities need an effective distribution system with reliable two-way communications extended into the home if they hope to lower residential loads during high demand periods –perhaps by delaying defrost cycles in refrigerators or reducing power to stove tops.

California is waiting for national action so it doesn't place standed assets in the field, says CPUC Utiliites Energineer Wendy Al;-Mukdad.

From the industry perspective, standards will lower products costs and simplify development. At GE, a new hybrid water heater comes with a Zigbee connector on its side instead of integrated inside. That way it can be replaced if standards favor a different technology. However, integration would make the product less expensive to manufacture.

Product design is of particular important to companies such as Whirlpool, which promises to have 1 million smart dryers in the market by the end of 2011.

NIST’s next step is to broaden its examination of technologies beyond the Unites States to determine how technology development in places such as Japan and China might influence deployment here.

Despite the work ahead, McDonald says he is serious about getting the standards work completed sooner rather than later. It that means changing the leadership, then a change needs to be considered, he says.

He adds: “If we don’t have the house situation worked out, it’s going to be a bottleneck.”

The fallout from the lack of standards is already being felt in places such as California, where the California Public Utilities Commission put off smart grid decisions for fear of placing non-standard equipment in the field.

The commission wants to make sure utility investments don’t become “stranded assets,” said Utilities Engineer Wendy Al-Mukdad at this week at the ConnectivityWeek conference in Santa Clara. As a result, “We’re waiting for a lot of the national action on standards and protocols” to conclude.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Western, Chinese Electric Car Companies Forming Bonds Of Convenience

May 27, 2010

EnerDel joined the parade of U.S. and European electric-vehicle companies striking deals with Chinese competitors, announcing on Thursday a joint venture with Chinese auto parts supplier Wanxiang.

The two companies will jointly manufacture lithium ion batteries with an eye on selling to the explosive Chinese car market, now the world’s largest.

Daimler is driving to China, but so is EnerDel, which announced a joint venture Thursday to manufacture lithium-ion betteries in China.

The deal is the most recent in a string of joint ventures underscoring the attractiveness of the rapidly growing Chinese market and the desire of Chinese companies to gain access to advanced Western technologies. By some measures, Chinese technologies trail those in the West and Japan by as much as a decade.

Among the Western interlopers is Germany’s Daimler AG, which early Thursday launched a $88 million joint venture with Chinese battery maker turned car developer BYD to build an electric car for the Chinese market.

Earlier this week, CODA of Santa Monica said it planned to open a Columbus, Ohio, lithium-ion battery factory. Lio Energy Systems, a joint venture between Coda and Chinese company Lishen Power Battery, will operate the plant.

The sometimes surprising bedfellows highlight the bond now forming between otherwise potential adversaries – largely to take advantage of the manufacturing muscle available from Chinese companies. “Our new joint venture is well positioned to make the most of the vast potential of electric mobility in China,” said Dieter Zetsche, Damiler’s chairman.

EnerDel, the battery-making arm of Ener1, said it expects its joint venture to produce 20,000 battery packs annually by year’s end and 40,000 by the end of 2011. The capacity will greatly expand production at the Indianapolis company, which now makes 20,000 battery packs at a facility in Korea and anticipates an additional 30,000 at a soon-to-open Indianapolis plant. A second Indianapolis facility operates at a comparatively modest level.

But does more than raise the company’s global capacity, according to a spokesperson. It gives EnerDel access to the high priority Chinese market. The company did not say what it will invest in the joint venture.

Wanxiang, China’s largest auto-parts supplier, is the majority stakeholder in domestic carmaker Guangzhou Automobile and has supply relationships with vehicle makers SAIC, Chana, Haima and Yutong – all of which are potential battery customers.

Daimlers says its alliance is designed to combine its expertise in electric cars with BYD’s command of battery technology and drive systems. BYD has 3,000 engineers working in Shanghai, with plans to hire more.

The new vehicle will be marketed under a yet unannounced brand. BYD, which counts Warren Buffett among its backers, already has built two electric cars: the hybrid F3DM and the soon to be released e6.

Coda says it is scouting sites for its plant. It also will apply for a manufacturing loan from the Energy Department. The company’s joint venture produces 20,000 battery packs a year in China, but will close the facility when the Ohio operations begin.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Will Powerline Find Converts In The US?

May 27, 2010

Powerline networks have gotten a bad rap in the United States. This may be changing.

Early networks that U.S. utilities set up for one-way meter reading were slow, giving the impression the technology was pokey.

Echelon says its participation in the Duke Energy smart grid trial is raising the technology's profile.

Powerline also has been plagued by noise, or harmonics, from busy electric wires and suffered higher costs. Transformers inadvertently filter network communications and the expense of outfitting them with repeaters to boost the signals proved greater in the U.S. than in Europe, where powerline found converts, because transformers here serve fewer homes.

These objections could be softening. Smart-meter maker Echelon says its participation in the long-delayed Duke Energy smart-grid rollout is winning new attention for the technology. Duke’s grid is the first large-scale smart-meter trial in the U.S. using powerline.

The trial shows that it can do the job, and utilities appear to be giving it consideration for future deployments, says Steve Nguyen, director of corporate marketing at Echelon. “That’s the feedback we’re getting on the street from our sales team,” Nguyen said at the ConnectivityWeek conference in Silicon Valley.

Echelon has shipped Duke 150,000 smart meters, 80,000 of which have been deployed in Ohio pilot. The advantage with powerline is that Duke can view its smart grid as more than just a network of smart meters used for home-energy monitoring.

The company can use powerline, which connects meters to transformers, to monitor and manage energy use by streetlights, and to assess power quality in its transmission lines, Nguyen says.

Up to now, U.S. utilities have favored cellular networks and proprietary wireless technologies in their smart grids. This is in contrast to Europe, where Echelon has the majority of its 100 or so smart grid deployments and trials.

The question is whether this is about to change.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Facebook Benefits More When Users Share Less Information, CEO says

May 26, 2010

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at this morning media event on privacy

This is sort of counter intuitive, especially after forcing its users to open more of their personal information.

But let’s give Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the benefit of the doubt and listen to why he thinks more (open user information) is actually less (revenues) for his company.

“There’s this idea going around that somehow, if people share information more, that we can use it better for ad targeting. And it’s actually the opposite!

First of all, advertisers don’t get any information from the system…

We target all the ads ourselves. Advertisers come to us and say ‘here is what I want to advertise to this set of people.’ We take the ad and we show it to the persons we think are interested in it…

So because of the way the system works it doesn’t matter with who you are sharing information with. You could share with your friends, openly with everyone and it doesn’t affect the ads at all!

And the only reason why we recommend the settings that we do is we think they’re the best settings for the balance between sharing and people finding you on the service.”

Convinced? Check out Zuckerberg’s comments in its entirety below.

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Solar In For Turbulent Times

May 26, 2010

The solar market is in for turbulent times.

Sales this year should grow a robust 58 percent to 11.2 GW, recovering from a difficult 2009. And while they should rise modestly again next year, over capacity will push prices sharply lower

This difficult combination will cause sales dollars – and profit margins – to fall.

Weathering this market will be difficult for all but the lowest cost manufacturers, warns an annual market forecast from Greentech Media Research.

Solar market revenue from 2003 to 2013. Source: Greentech Media Research

Here are some observations from the study:

*High electricity prices will make Japan and Italy the first markets to see solar reach cost parity with fossil fuels. Select projects will begin to reach parity in the next three years with widespread cost parity after that.

*German demand for solar energy will peak in 2010 following cuts in the country’s feed-in tariff beginning in July. In 2011, demand will decline to 4 GW from 5.5 GW this year and remain steady through 2013.

*Italy will become the world’s second largest solar market (after Germany) in 2010. Demand of 1.4 GW will be spurred by feed-in tariff cuts planned for 2011.

*Excess manufacturing capacity for solar modules will increase each year through 2013. Excess capacity of more than 6 GW this year will increase to more than 13 GW by then.

*Module pricing will once again come under pressure. After a slight uptick in the first half of 2010, prices will fall in the second half of the year and tumble another 19 percent in 2011. Margins at manufacturers will shrink.

*Thin-film solar cells will make up about a third of the market by 2013 as new technologies – as well as First Solar’s cadmium telluride cells – see expanding demand. Only a few companies will achieve high margin, thin-film production.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Solar Becoming Greener But Key EU Decision On Cadmium Awaits In June

May 25, 2010

Top solar manufacturers are making progress on greening their supply chains and recycling efforts, but a key European Union decision on cadmium could redefine what it means to be good for the environment

The EU’s decision on whether to exempt solar makers from regulations on hazardous chemicals, such as cadmium and lead, could come as soon as next month.

Its repercussions could be profound, particularly on market leader First Solar, which makes a cadmium-telluride thin-film cell. But First Solar is not alone in feeling the pain. General Electric and its partner PrimeStar Solar also work with cadmium, as does Abound Solar.

The EU could decide whether to exempt the solar industry from hazardous chemical regulations in June, including those on cadmium, a component of many cells.

Industry sources say the EU review may not be finalized until the fall, but the exemption should be decided by the end of June. If it is not granted, chemicals such as cadmium could eventually be banned from use.

Already this year seems to be a big one for solar’s efforts to manage its supply chain, improve manufacturing  and scale-up recycling. In Europe, a voluntary recycling program created to take back spent solar panels is ready to begin, and the number of companies participating has almost doubled to more than 25.

“This is a key year for PV recycling,” says Ben Santarris, public affairs manager at crystalline silicon cell maker SolarWorld. The program calls on companies to aside money ahead of time to process the panels they sell, a step Sheila Davis, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, considers critical for the industry.

For companies such as SolarWorld, which has had a panel-recycling program at a factory in Germany since 2003, the new efforts don’t represent a big change. For others, the change is more significant.

However big changes do confront SolarWorld – specifically the removal of lead from its cells and panels. “We are committed to beginning to remove lead from our production facilities this year,” says Santarris.

The effort is a challenge both chemically and financially, and without an exemption from EU hazardous chemical regulations, could be mandated. The company uses lead during metallization, to coat silicon wafers with circuitry, and then to connect cells inside modules. A substitute is hard to find.

While the amount of lead is small enough not to violate California’s strict regulations, says Santarris, the pressures on the industry are considerable.

These pressures may weigh heaviest on cadmium telluride companies. First Solar defends its use of cadmium and has stepped up efforts to monitor the material in its supply chain.

Cadmium is a byproduct of zinc refining and purification, and would go to waste if not used, says Lisa Krueger, vice president of sustainable development. More so, by the time it ends up in the cadmium telluride compound First Solar uses, it is very stable and insoluble to water, so it doesn’t run off with the rain.

The compound is then placed between two pieces of glass, insulating it from exposure to the environment. “There is very little opportunity for the cadmium to be exposed to people or the environment,” says Krueger. “We’ve done a lot third-party validation.”

She also points out that a cadmium-telluride cell takes less energy to manufacture than a crystalline-silicon one. This means the CO2 output is lower, 14 to 15 grams per kWh of product compared with 28 to 29 for crystalline silicon, she says.

The company is nonetheless stepping up its efforts to monitor its supply chain. “There are things we can do to improve (our) supply chain,” acknowledges Krueger. One thing is to peer deeper, all the way back to the refiners and purifiers who handle raw materials. It is an effort now underway.

That means getting more information and validating the information suppliers do release, Krueger says. The company already audits some of companies. It will decide whether to audit more.

Still, long term, it doesn’t seem possible Europe will leave the industry unregulated. “Solar has an impact,” says Davis. “If it wants to be green, it needs to proactively address those impacts.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cisco Unveils First Smart Grid Hardware And Customers

May 25, 2010

Cisco Systems kept its promise to build industrial strength smart-grid hardware, unveiling on Tuesday its first router and switch.

The Silicon Valley networking giant has made no secret about its interest in this potentially lucrative market. But so far its efforts have appeared sluggish, with few utilities other than Duke Energy climbing aboard.

Cisco's Connected Grid line built with special features for the grid, including a greater resistence to extreme temperatures and electromagnetic fields.

This could be ready to change. Along with the new products – engineered with special features, such as an ability to resist strong electromagnetic fields – the company named several utilities now testing the products and said it expects them to become customers. They are San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, Enel Group in Italy and E.ON Westfalen Weser in Germany

Cisco also introduced a brand name for its line of hardware: Connected Grid. And it said additional products were on the way, included an in-home energy display expected in several months that could put the company in head-to-head competition with vendors such as EcoFactor and Tendril.

To design products for the market, “we really needed to start from the ground up,” says Brad Tips, product manager for substation automation.

The new router and switch target the substation market, where extreme temperatures and electric fields make for difficult conditions. Standard routers and switches would not likely survive the 15 years or more utilities demand, said Tips.

Cisco says its Connected Grid Router 2010 and Switch 2520 will withstand temperatures from 40 below zero to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Traditional products operate in a narrower 32-degree to 100-degree range.

They also will operate in high electromagnetic fields, withstand abnormal electrical surges and run with no fans or moving parts to eliminate the likelihood of failure. The Switch 2520 has optional support for powerline over Ethernet with a similar feature expected for the router.

The products will cost more than traditional networking gear – a base price of $5,900 for the router and $5,400 for the switch. But Cisco says they will competitively stack up with gear from suppliers RuggedCom, GarrettCom, Hirschmann Automation and Control, and Encore Networks.

Cisco had promised its first smart grid products within nine to 12 months of last May’s push into the market space, so it claims to be on time. The two products will be available commercially by August.

Along with new consumer-facing products, Cisco said it would unveil what it calls field-area network gear, such as pole-top routers expected to work out of doors in neighborhood settings. It withheld additional information on the in-home consumer display.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Defining The Smart Grid

May 24, 2010

Much like a first-time political candidate, the smart grid is a public unknown in need of defining. A new survey suggests there is ample potential for shaping favorable views.

The EcoAlign survey found that a quarter of respondents said they would use the smart grid either daily or weekly, suggesting that if it is built, they will come.

The survey, conducted by marketing agency EcoAlign, is not the first to find public awareness of the smart grid is low. Sixty-nine percent 1,000 people contacted online in May had not heard of the smart grid, women in particular. Only 22 percent of women were aware of the term compared with 41 percent of men.

Once presented with a description, public attitudes were generally favorable. Forty-three percent identified the benefit of the grid as lower utility bills. Another 37 percent showed an interest in analyzing their electricity consumption, and an additional 37 cited lower energy use as a reason to monitor the grid.

The survey also suggests public use could be greater than anticipated.  Many experts worry a nonchalant consumer will find little motivation to monitor energy and use smart meters and smart appliances to schedule the operation of a washing machine for off-peak hours, or cut the electrical flow to a refrigerator on hot summer afternoons.

The survey suggests the opposite might be true. Half of respondents found the ability to examine their energy use to be “extremely” or “very” appealing. This was higher among younger people and those with higher energy bills.

What’s more, about quarter said they might use the smart grid one a day or at least weekly, with the average respondent anticipating 12 times a month.

The existential dilemma facing the industry is the one facing many young industries: if you build it, will they come? At least one survey suggests they just might.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Dispute Over PACE Energy Retrofit Financing Goes To Washington

May 24, 2010

A week ago, California Attorney General Edmund Brown dashed off a worried letter to federal officials defending California’s PACE financing for home energy retrofits.

A week earlier, government lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released a vague lenders’ notice apparently critical of the innovative program. Brown worried the notice could derail efforts to expand the Property Assessed Clean Energy financing to 28 million Californians by September.

Now the dispute is the subject of discussions in Washington with efforts to remaking the energy profile of the nation’s homes hanging in the balance.

Notice from federal lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused confusion, says California Attorney General Brown, with the future demand for home energy retrofits hanging in the balance.

The low-interest PACE loans allow homeowners to borrow for home energy-efficiency improvements, including solar installation, and repay the loans over the 20 years. The government raises the money by selling bonds. The repayments are added to property tax bills and the 20-year loans stay with homes when they are sold.

This final feature is what alarmed Fannie and Freddie. Would the liens keep the two lenders from underwriting mortgages for the properties, especially if the energy remodeling didn’t translate into higher property values? Participating homes would have higher tax bills than other comparable properties. Wouldn’t they be at a disadvantage in the market place?

Apparently, the dispute is being hashed out among housing officials in Washington. Their decision, however, will have an impact beyond California as states such as New York, Colorado and New Mexico are moving ahead with the program.

In California, PACE has already proved its popularity. In Sonoma County alone, 800 solar and other projects have been soaked up $30 million in financing. Energy remodelers say that along with President Obama’s HOMESTAR energy retrofit initiative now moving through Congress, PACE should spark a boom in business. And it should cut energy use at homes and businesses – about 40 percent of the nation’s demand.

In his May 18 letter, Brown, who is running for governor, said Fannie’s and Freddie’s advice notices “caused confusion and concern among California PACE stakeholders (and may have) serious financial implications for participating local governments and the thousands of homeowners and small businesses currently participating in these programs”

He said California has earmarked a substantial portion of $570 million in funds for PACE. The goal is to “support green manufacturing jobs and thousands of additional jobs associated with installation and maintenance of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects,” he said, calling for a withdrawal of the notice.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Poet’s Plans For Ethanol Domination

May 21, 2010

The nation can reach its goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, and Poet would like to provide about 10 percent of it.

These projections were contained in Congressional testimony offered this week by Poet Vice President of Commercial Development Scott Weishaar.

Poet's target is 10 percent of the ethanol market by 2022. But good government policy is needed, the company says.

Weishaar said the 36 billion gallon national goal is achievable if the government sets the right policies to support the industry. He also said the South Dakota company is ready to capitalize.

Poet, the world’s largest ethanol producer, has 26 plants and expects to ferment 3.5 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022. Its game plan is to get 1 billion from expanding production at its facilities, says Weishaar.

Another 1.4 billion will come from licensing technology to other grain ethanol companies and a final 1.1 billion will result from non-corn feedstock that Poet expects to process

But finding the financing is no sure thing. Lenders are hesitant to fund new technologies for producing cellulosic ethanol. What’s more, with the cellulosic ethanol tax credit set to expire in 2012, things could get worse.

Weishaar said a government commitment to the industry requires a prescription that includes:

*Loan guarantees for the construction of new plants;

*A long-term extension of the cellulosic ethanol tax credit;

*Continuation of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program in the Farm Bill to provide assistance, and matching funds, to farmers who grow biomass;

*An increasing of the ethanol limit for standard autos to 15 percent from 10 percent. The 10 percent limit means only about 12.5 billion gallons of ethanol can be sold when the industry produces 13.5 billion;

*A mandate that new vehicles are flexible fuel; and

*Requirements that service station pumps allow various blending options.

The U.S. uses 140 billion gallons of gas a year. By 2022, almost 10 percent might be ethanol. Poet wants to be king.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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