electricity
It’s a strange thing to expect a business to try and sell less of what it traffics in, but that’s precisely what energy-efficiency standards focused on utilities aim to do. What’s more, utility companies are becoming very good at selling less of their top product: electricity. But
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How exactly can a smarter grid make our lives better, easier, cheaper or more efficient? A first-of-its-kind report card template for utilities developed by the Environmental Defense Fund identifies several good reasons for upgrading our current electricity infrastructure: * Energy “on sale” when fewer people want it. So-called “dynamic pricing” can
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How “not smart” is today’s electricity grid? Consider the answer most of us still hear on the phone when reporting an outage: “Look outside and see if your neighbours’ lights are on.” State-of-the-art, self-healing, “Jetsons”-style power that’s not. Based as it is on technology that was basically
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Globally, the energy and utilities industry is experiencing the most significant period of investment it has ever known. This is fuelled not only by the rapid rise of the developing nations, where energy infrastructure development has become a priority to support the booming economy, but also by the need to
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Researchers in Spain have developed a superconducting electric cable that could cut energy losses across parts of the grid by 50 to 70 per cent. The 30-metre cable, as well as the terminals to connect it to a network, was constructed using a high-temperature superconducting material called BSCCO. The team
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Planned shutdowns of ageing nuclear and coal power plants could leave the UK facing an electricity shortfall as early as 2017, according to a new study. “Considering successive governments have had 30 years notice of the present serious decline of UK oil and gas supplies and full knowledge of generation
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Just as we plug into computers to communicate via Skype and email, electric fish communicate by plugging into special channels in their cells to generate electrical impulses, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin. Found throughout Central and South America, electric fish generate electrical fields to
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If you think it’s tough for utilities to balance electricity supply and demand now, just you wait, says National Grid. According to a new report from the energy firm, operating the UK’s electricity system is set to become even more complex in coming decades as large amounts of
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Researchers must be a lot like milk: if you leave them alone for long enough, all sorts of crazy stuff develops. Although in milk’s case, most of it would give you severe digestive wrongness, scientists’ work can often make you feel better about things. According to those clever folk
china
Who are the most patient people in the world? Primary school teachers? Buddhish monks? Buddhist monks who teach primary schoolchildren and look after injured puppies on the weekend? No, it’s actually Chinese factory owners. If you’re a little skeptical, Greenbang would like to point you towards an article
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Do you want to know how much Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital, invested in smart grid company Grid Net? Do you? Huh? Huh? Well, Greenbang’s not going to tell you. So there. Not because she doesn’t want to mind – Greenbang’s not like that – but because she
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Where will you be in 2020? Greenbang hopes she’ll be hanging out with Buck Rogers and drinking cocktails in space, possibly with some sort of cyborg capacities. Maybe expandable legs, like Inspector Gadget. Scottish and Southern Energy though has a far more pragmatic goal in mind for the coming