New technology allows the train's engine to capture the energy it now wastes, store it in a battery and use it for acceleration.
from http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2009/12/23/f_BG_GE_locomotive.fortune/
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
2009 Renewable Energy Roundup - The New Products
I have been remiss in posting about the Renewable Energy Roundup. We had a great time and saw a couple new products and trends I want to tell you about. If you missed my blog on last year's show, read it here. It will give you an idea of the full show. What I'll cover below is new items for 2009.
WIND
This is a new idea on wind energy. On a normal windmill the generator is in the center so the wind speed has to be 7 to 9 mph before the blades move against that much friction. This product has a free-spinning wheel with the magnets enclosed on the outer ring. No friction. That lack of friction allows this windmill to generate energy in a 2 to 3 mph wind instead of the faster speeds. It also can be mounted on your roof, the side of your house, or up on a pole like a standard windmill. The price point on this is about $5,250. You'd want to examine your annual needs to see if this would pay back for you. I was reading the stats and it seemed to say that this product can produce up to 2,400 kwh per year in a good wind. We use 22,000 per year at our house. So this is not a huge dent in our usage. At 13 cents per kwh, it would take us 16.8 years to pay back the investment. So, we're still searching for ideas. As these new systems come out we'll have more cost effective options.
This is a new design in wind energy that uses 3 vertical blade to turn a base generator. It's a very elegant design and should win some award. But the price tag was very high which makes me question the return on investment. This is offered by Aquilo Power. You might ask for current pricing to see if they're more affordable.
ELECTRIC CARS
More electric cars are coming. A full-range electric car has an electric engine powered by batteries which are charged either by plugging in the car at night or by a small gasoline engine. Unlike a hybrid, the gasoline engine never turns the drive train but simply charges batteries.
Many of you have heard of the Chevy Volt which will be here in 2010.
What is news is the new Nissan Leaf. It should be priced more competitively than Volt which will make it more accepted in the market place.
One of best things Toyota did was price Prius under $25,000 so people could afford them. They produced them in large enough numbers to allow market saturation. I hope Nissan and GM do the same thing with these new cars.
Toyota just announced that there will be a plug-in Prius in 2010 which will extend their lead in hybrid production.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Bob McCranie to teach session at Renewal Energy Roundup 2009
I'm very happy to announce that I have been selected to teach a session at this year's Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, TX this September. If things go as scheduled, my session will be on Saturday, Sept 26th at 5 pm.
GREEN Realtors® - Environmental Real Estate Options for Existing Homes
Building a green home is a dream of every environmentalist. But most of us live in existing homes that need improving. Over the last 6 years my partner and I have improved our home in Carrollton, TX adding a variety of green features to the property. By doing so, we have shaved 10,000 kwh off our annual electric usage, added 1200 gallons of rain water retention to property and recently installed solar water heating. We have had some experiments that haven’t worked and educated our city inspectors along the way. This presentation will share our successes and our failures in an interactive discussion.
Bob McCranie is a real estate broker in the Dallas area. He is one of the first 100 agents in Texas and one of the first 1,000 in the nation to earn the new GREEN Realtor Designation. As frequent participants at the Renewal Energy Roundup, Bob and his partner, Warren Sippel, have integrated green principles into our home, our businesses, and our family & friend’s homes and businesses. Bob McCranie has been a real estate agent since 2003 and have earned his Brokers license, and the GRI and CRS designations.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
First Solar Tower in United States Powers Up
Idealab rebounds with recent focus on clean technology
Read Original Article
Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
Idealab’s Bill Gross is reflected in a solar tracking mirror on the firm’s rooftop in Pasadena. His ESolar opens an innovative energy facility today in Lancaster.
Entrepreneur Bill Gross' Pasadena firm has had its ups and downs. But it is energized since turning to clean tech, including ESolar, which is opening an innovative solar power facility in Lancaster.
By Alana Semuels
August 5, 2009
The hundreds of glass mirrors break the dusty field in Lancaster, a sea of silver in a landscape of brown.
When switched on for the first time today at an opening gala with investors, local politicians and others, they'll make up the first operational solar tower energy facility in the United States.
They reflect the sun into a tower in the middle of the field, boiling water into steam that travels through pipes to power a turbine and create electricity. The plant, created by Pasadena company ESolar Inc., will be able to power 4,000 homes.
The strength of the small field of mirrors is surprising, but what might be more surprising is the technology's source. It was established by Pasadena incubator Idealab, a 1996 creation of entrepreneur Bill Gross. Gross, whom Time magazine once called the "man with a billion dollar brain," generated some big hits with GoTo.com, Internet Brands Inc. and Cooking.com, along with such misses as Eve.com and EToys.
Idealab, which has counted director Steven Spielberg and actor Michael Douglas among its backers, has been spreading its reach to the green technology sector.
In the last three years, it has created RayTracker Inc., a solar tracking solution for photovoltaic systems; Distributed World Power, which designs solar systems for developing countries; Aptera Motors, which designs fuel-efficient cars; and ESolar.
It is jumping into the environmental market as venture capital is flowing more into clean-tech companies. Investment in such firms shot up 73% in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to Ernst & Young, and is expected to continue growing.
The percentage of clean-tech investments to total investor funding has increased to double digits over the last three years, said Doug Regnier, an Ernst & Young partner leading its Pacific Southwest clean-tech consulting business.
Energy "is probably the biggest opportunity of the century," Gross said. "The world's energy needs and the demand to make that clean energy is going to be a challenge and an opportunity for smart entrepreneurs."
Though focused on computer software for two decades, Gross said he returned to his passion for solar energy in 2000 as power shortages loomed. The Caltech graduate bought the restaurant next door to Idealab and turned it into a machine shop, eventually running solar experiments on the roof. Idealab's first clean-tech firm, Energy Innovations, was created in 2001 to convert solar applications for commercial use. Idealab hired 50 people in the next three years to work on such ideas as a fuel-saving car and a portable solar device for developing countries.
The concept for ESolar came about as Idealab engineers started thinking about ways to provide cost-efficient solar energy for utilities and realized that most solar panels in commercial use were too big to be cost-efficient.
"We tried to figure out the angle we could exploit where we can zig where other people zag," Gross said.
They came up with what Gross calls an unorthodox plan: "Go small." Rather than make giant solar panels, they sized them at one square meter. That made the panels easier to install, putting them together like Legos rather than erecting a giant solar facility.
The smaller mirrors also are able to be aimed more quickly at the boiler target, said Michael Liebelson, head of the low-carbon development group at NRG Energy Inc., which is building plants using ESolar technology. Idealab's software expertise helped it devise a way to manipulate the mirrors for better precision, he said.
"ESolar has one of the most, if not the most, innovative solar thermal technologies out there," Liebelson said.
The ESolar plant in Lancaster went up on the barren desert site in 18 months, said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. He's trying to make his city a center for alternative energy. "For an alternative energy to go on the line in 18 months, it's literally unheard of," he said.
ESolar has lined up more than $130 million in investments from such firms as NRG, ACME Group, Google's philanthropic arm and Oak Investment Partners.
For Gross, ESolar's effort is a sign that the interest in solar is growing -- and that Idealab still has its knack for building companies and persuading venture capitalists to invest, even in a tough economy.
And it helps Gross regain a foothold after mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and others sued him in 2002, alleging self-dealing and fraud, and shareholders bailed him out in 2006 after he failed to repay a $50-million personal loan.
"The biggest factor is when you've demonstrated that you can take a company from revenue to profit to successful exit," he said. "That makes an investor comfortable that you can do it again."
Read Original Article
Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
Idealab’s Bill Gross is reflected in a solar tracking mirror on the firm’s rooftop in Pasadena. His ESolar opens an innovative energy facility today in Lancaster.
Entrepreneur Bill Gross' Pasadena firm has had its ups and downs. But it is energized since turning to clean tech, including ESolar, which is opening an innovative solar power facility in Lancaster.
By Alana Semuels
August 5, 2009
The hundreds of glass mirrors break the dusty field in Lancaster, a sea of silver in a landscape of brown.
When switched on for the first time today at an opening gala with investors, local politicians and others, they'll make up the first operational solar tower energy facility in the United States.
They reflect the sun into a tower in the middle of the field, boiling water into steam that travels through pipes to power a turbine and create electricity. The plant, created by Pasadena company ESolar Inc., will be able to power 4,000 homes.
The strength of the small field of mirrors is surprising, but what might be more surprising is the technology's source. It was established by Pasadena incubator Idealab, a 1996 creation of entrepreneur Bill Gross. Gross, whom Time magazine once called the "man with a billion dollar brain," generated some big hits with GoTo.com, Internet Brands Inc. and Cooking.com, along with such misses as Eve.com and EToys.
Idealab, which has counted director Steven Spielberg and actor Michael Douglas among its backers, has been spreading its reach to the green technology sector.
In the last three years, it has created RayTracker Inc., a solar tracking solution for photovoltaic systems; Distributed World Power, which designs solar systems for developing countries; Aptera Motors, which designs fuel-efficient cars; and ESolar.
It is jumping into the environmental market as venture capital is flowing more into clean-tech companies. Investment in such firms shot up 73% in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to Ernst & Young, and is expected to continue growing.
The percentage of clean-tech investments to total investor funding has increased to double digits over the last three years, said Doug Regnier, an Ernst & Young partner leading its Pacific Southwest clean-tech consulting business.
Energy "is probably the biggest opportunity of the century," Gross said. "The world's energy needs and the demand to make that clean energy is going to be a challenge and an opportunity for smart entrepreneurs."
Though focused on computer software for two decades, Gross said he returned to his passion for solar energy in 2000 as power shortages loomed. The Caltech graduate bought the restaurant next door to Idealab and turned it into a machine shop, eventually running solar experiments on the roof. Idealab's first clean-tech firm, Energy Innovations, was created in 2001 to convert solar applications for commercial use. Idealab hired 50 people in the next three years to work on such ideas as a fuel-saving car and a portable solar device for developing countries.
The concept for ESolar came about as Idealab engineers started thinking about ways to provide cost-efficient solar energy for utilities and realized that most solar panels in commercial use were too big to be cost-efficient.
"We tried to figure out the angle we could exploit where we can zig where other people zag," Gross said.
They came up with what Gross calls an unorthodox plan: "Go small." Rather than make giant solar panels, they sized them at one square meter. That made the panels easier to install, putting them together like Legos rather than erecting a giant solar facility.
The smaller mirrors also are able to be aimed more quickly at the boiler target, said Michael Liebelson, head of the low-carbon development group at NRG Energy Inc., which is building plants using ESolar technology. Idealab's software expertise helped it devise a way to manipulate the mirrors for better precision, he said.
"ESolar has one of the most, if not the most, innovative solar thermal technologies out there," Liebelson said.
The ESolar plant in Lancaster went up on the barren desert site in 18 months, said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. He's trying to make his city a center for alternative energy. "For an alternative energy to go on the line in 18 months, it's literally unheard of," he said.
ESolar has lined up more than $130 million in investments from such firms as NRG, ACME Group, Google's philanthropic arm and Oak Investment Partners.
For Gross, ESolar's effort is a sign that the interest in solar is growing -- and that Idealab still has its knack for building companies and persuading venture capitalists to invest, even in a tough economy.
And it helps Gross regain a foothold after mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and others sued him in 2002, alleging self-dealing and fraud, and shareholders bailed him out in 2006 after he failed to repay a $50-million personal loan.
"The biggest factor is when you've demonstrated that you can take a company from revenue to profit to successful exit," he said. "That makes an investor comfortable that you can do it again."
Friday, July 31, 2009
How we put together our Rain Water system
Our Rain Water Retention system consists of
• Two 330 gallon tanks which were once used for Hawaiian Punch drink juice concentrate.
• Three standard 55 gallon rain barrels.
• Six additional 55 gallon barrels converted to hold water, like these pictured here.
We added guttering to our roof line, put the barrels in the right locations and did a rain dance.
Two of our Five downspouts drain directly into the 330 gallon tanks. The three remaining downspouts drain into the 3 standard rain barrels, and then we ran hoses from the three standard rain barrels to the 6 additional barrels to add capacity and run off.
• Two 330 gallon tanks which were once used for Hawaiian Punch drink juice concentrate.
• Three standard 55 gallon rain barrels.
• Six additional 55 gallon barrels converted to hold water, like these pictured here.
We added guttering to our roof line, put the barrels in the right locations and did a rain dance.
Two of our Five downspouts drain directly into the 330 gallon tanks. The three remaining downspouts drain into the 3 standard rain barrels, and then we ran hoses from the three standard rain barrels to the 6 additional barrels to add capacity and run off.
Monday, July 20, 2009
AC solar panels: One step closer to DIY solar? - from
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10288234-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech
by Martin LaMonica
Start-up GreenRay Solar has raised money to finalize development of a solar panel that puts out household-grade alternating current, a technology that backers say will make solar power more accessible to homeowners.
The Westford, Mass.-based company said that it has raised $2 million from the Quercus Trust and 21Ventures, which will allow it to start production of its solar panels in the fourth quarter this year. Since its founding three years ago, the company had raised $3.5 million in state and federal clean-energy grants.
GreenRay's AC Solar Module will turn out electricity that meshes with household alternating current and voltage. Solar panels put out direct current, and then an inverter, typically placed in a home's basement or outside the house, converts the direct current to alternating current.
Instead of a large inverter for many panels, there are a number of companies developing microinverters that do the DC-to-AC conversion right on the panel.
This design simplifies installation and offers a number of other benefits, said GreenRay CEO Miles Russell. Cutting out the single inverter is safer because installers are dealing with lower voltages.
Microinverters also make an array deliver more reliable performance, say advocates. When one direct current panel is shaded, that drops the performance of all the panels connected to it. Also, it's easier to gather data on an array's performance, Russell said. GreenRay's panels will transmit performance data over the wires and transmit it to the Web via a gateway, he said.
Does this mean that installing solar panels is a do-it-yourself job? Russell said that very handy people could install GreenRay's 200-watt panel, but they are electrical appliances so require typical safety precautions and inspection.
"The do-it-yourself moniker is more of a long-term objective. You could imagine them at a Home Depot and they could be installed for an extra fee," he said.
Another advantage of AC solar panels is that a person could install only a few, rather than a full array, without the cost of an inverter. On the other hand, microinverters do add cost to a solar panel, which is one reason that microinverters have not been commercialized in the past.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld.
by Martin LaMonica
Start-up GreenRay Solar has raised money to finalize development of a solar panel that puts out household-grade alternating current, a technology that backers say will make solar power more accessible to homeowners.
The Westford, Mass.-based company said that it has raised $2 million from the Quercus Trust and 21Ventures, which will allow it to start production of its solar panels in the fourth quarter this year. Since its founding three years ago, the company had raised $3.5 million in state and federal clean-energy grants.
GreenRay's AC Solar Module will turn out electricity that meshes with household alternating current and voltage. Solar panels put out direct current, and then an inverter, typically placed in a home's basement or outside the house, converts the direct current to alternating current.
Instead of a large inverter for many panels, there are a number of companies developing microinverters that do the DC-to-AC conversion right on the panel.
This design simplifies installation and offers a number of other benefits, said GreenRay CEO Miles Russell. Cutting out the single inverter is safer because installers are dealing with lower voltages.
Microinverters also make an array deliver more reliable performance, say advocates. When one direct current panel is shaded, that drops the performance of all the panels connected to it. Also, it's easier to gather data on an array's performance, Russell said. GreenRay's panels will transmit performance data over the wires and transmit it to the Web via a gateway, he said.
Does this mean that installing solar panels is a do-it-yourself job? Russell said that very handy people could install GreenRay's 200-watt panel, but they are electrical appliances so require typical safety precautions and inspection.
"The do-it-yourself moniker is more of a long-term objective. You could imagine them at a Home Depot and they could be installed for an extra fee," he said.
Another advantage of AC solar panels is that a person could install only a few, rather than a full array, without the cost of an inverter. On the other hand, microinverters do add cost to a solar panel, which is one reason that microinverters have not been commercialized in the past.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Microsoft wants to show you how to cut your utility bills.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10269832-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech
From CNET.com
Microsoft wants to show you how to cut your utility bills.
The software giant will enter the burgeoning business of home-energy management on Wednesday with Hohm, a free Web application designed to show consumers how to conserve electricity and natural gas. Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, is scheduled to introduce Hohm and discuss Microsoft's energy strategy at the Edison Electric Institute utility industry conference on Wednesday.
It's a move that stands to shake up home-energy monitoring, a business that dozens of start-ups and IT industry heavyweights, including Google, Cisco, and Verizon, are moving into. There are already several advice Web sites that help consumers get tips on how to save money by providing guidance on weatherizing a home, for example.
But Microsoft designed Hohm as a cloud-computing application--built on the Azure online operating system and Bing search engine--so that users can tap into back-end data analytics for more tailored advice. Hohm provides tips based on models licensed from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which were developed with years of data, according to Microsoft.
The Hohm residential energy management application gives consumers ways to track energy use at home and offers advice on cutting bills.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Another break from the rest of the pack is that Microsoft on Wednesday plans to make a software development kit available to utilities, which would allow a customer's bill information to be fed automatically into the application. Initially, most users need to input data manually, but over time, the company expects that many utilities will provide that service.
"It's analogous to financial applications when they were released years ago that interacted with banks' online applications," said Troy Batterberry, product unit manager for Hohm. "Now you'd be hard-pressed to find a bank that doesn't export data to Quicken or another common format. We see energy going the same route," said Batterberry.
The recommendations from Hohm should get better over time as more people use it, which will improve the underlying analytics, he said.
The first utilities to sign on to use Hohm are Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy. Two smart-meter vendors--Itron and Landis+Gyr--are also partnering with Microsoft to provide more detailed information.
Business model of the future?
Microsoft has been developing a business around residential energy management for about two years and has been working on the Hohm application for about a year, Batterberry said. He anticipates that it will be in beta testing for about nine months.
Initially, the company plans to sell contextual ads to make some revenue. Down the road, however, Microsoft anticipates that it can become a sort of information broker between customers and utilities looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their customers.
Many utilities have energy-efficiency programs that offer customers discounts to upgrade home equipment, such as more efficient hot water heaters.
As part of their smart-grid programs, some utilities are also testing what are called demand-response programs where they can, with a customer's permission, temporarily turn down an air conditioner thermostat or turn off a hot water heater. This allows the utility to dial back the demand for energy during peak times in exchange for a credit of some sort to consumers.
In a few years, Microsoft expects to be able to aggregate information from several households willing to participate in efficiency programs to utilities. For example, this "demand-side management" service would tell utilities that they can expect a reduction of electricity use during peak times, explained Batterberry.
Personal information is secured by the same service used with Microsoft's HealthVault health care service. But Batterberry said that not everybody will want to cede control of its major appliances.
"Letting customers shed load is an interesting way to keep them in control of their energy usage, but there will be a significant class of consumer that will have issues with centralized control," he said.
Bringing scale home
In the near term, Microsoft expects it can help consumers even if they just want a better dashboard to view home energy usage.
Microsoft and other home energy monitoring companies plan to work with device manufacturers to get energy information from thermostats and "smart plugs." That would allow a person to attach a smart plug to a refrigerator or dishwasher to get usage information in real time to a home network or Web application. Over time, those appliances could be controlled to dial down usage during peak times.
Microsoft also hopes to have more vendors of smart meters, which have two-way communications built in, to support Hohm's data formats, Batterberry said.
Although there is plenty of available information for how to save energy at home, products that provide consumers more detailed usage information or automate tasks are relatively new. The business models to take advantage of efficiency programs in many cases are still under development as well. For example, a utility may prefer that consumers run dishwashers at off-peak times but people are more likely to do that if they can take advantage of cheaper electricity rates.
Microsoft, like Google and many other vendors, are betting that consumers will take a more active role in conserving energy at home. Tools like Hohm will allow them to have better information and take advantage of energy-efficiency programs already offered by utilities, Batterberry said.
"Customers are motivated to save money but one of the problems with this industry is just a lack of awareness," he said.
___
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.
From CNET.com
Microsoft wants to show you how to cut your utility bills.
The software giant will enter the burgeoning business of home-energy management on Wednesday with Hohm, a free Web application designed to show consumers how to conserve electricity and natural gas. Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, is scheduled to introduce Hohm and discuss Microsoft's energy strategy at the Edison Electric Institute utility industry conference on Wednesday.
It's a move that stands to shake up home-energy monitoring, a business that dozens of start-ups and IT industry heavyweights, including Google, Cisco, and Verizon, are moving into. There are already several advice Web sites that help consumers get tips on how to save money by providing guidance on weatherizing a home, for example.
But Microsoft designed Hohm as a cloud-computing application--built on the Azure online operating system and Bing search engine--so that users can tap into back-end data analytics for more tailored advice. Hohm provides tips based on models licensed from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which were developed with years of data, according to Microsoft.
The Hohm residential energy management application gives consumers ways to track energy use at home and offers advice on cutting bills.
(Credit: Microsoft)
Another break from the rest of the pack is that Microsoft on Wednesday plans to make a software development kit available to utilities, which would allow a customer's bill information to be fed automatically into the application. Initially, most users need to input data manually, but over time, the company expects that many utilities will provide that service.
"It's analogous to financial applications when they were released years ago that interacted with banks' online applications," said Troy Batterberry, product unit manager for Hohm. "Now you'd be hard-pressed to find a bank that doesn't export data to Quicken or another common format. We see energy going the same route," said Batterberry.
The recommendations from Hohm should get better over time as more people use it, which will improve the underlying analytics, he said.
The first utilities to sign on to use Hohm are Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy. Two smart-meter vendors--Itron and Landis+Gyr--are also partnering with Microsoft to provide more detailed information.
Business model of the future?
Microsoft has been developing a business around residential energy management for about two years and has been working on the Hohm application for about a year, Batterberry said. He anticipates that it will be in beta testing for about nine months.
Initially, the company plans to sell contextual ads to make some revenue. Down the road, however, Microsoft anticipates that it can become a sort of information broker between customers and utilities looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their customers.
Many utilities have energy-efficiency programs that offer customers discounts to upgrade home equipment, such as more efficient hot water heaters.
As part of their smart-grid programs, some utilities are also testing what are called demand-response programs where they can, with a customer's permission, temporarily turn down an air conditioner thermostat or turn off a hot water heater. This allows the utility to dial back the demand for energy during peak times in exchange for a credit of some sort to consumers.
In a few years, Microsoft expects to be able to aggregate information from several households willing to participate in efficiency programs to utilities. For example, this "demand-side management" service would tell utilities that they can expect a reduction of electricity use during peak times, explained Batterberry.
Personal information is secured by the same service used with Microsoft's HealthVault health care service. But Batterberry said that not everybody will want to cede control of its major appliances.
"Letting customers shed load is an interesting way to keep them in control of their energy usage, but there will be a significant class of consumer that will have issues with centralized control," he said.
Bringing scale home
In the near term, Microsoft expects it can help consumers even if they just want a better dashboard to view home energy usage.
Microsoft and other home energy monitoring companies plan to work with device manufacturers to get energy information from thermostats and "smart plugs." That would allow a person to attach a smart plug to a refrigerator or dishwasher to get usage information in real time to a home network or Web application. Over time, those appliances could be controlled to dial down usage during peak times.
Microsoft also hopes to have more vendors of smart meters, which have two-way communications built in, to support Hohm's data formats, Batterberry said.
Although there is plenty of available information for how to save energy at home, products that provide consumers more detailed usage information or automate tasks are relatively new. The business models to take advantage of efficiency programs in many cases are still under development as well. For example, a utility may prefer that consumers run dishwashers at off-peak times but people are more likely to do that if they can take advantage of cheaper electricity rates.
Microsoft, like Google and many other vendors, are betting that consumers will take a more active role in conserving energy at home. Tools like Hohm will allow them to have better information and take advantage of energy-efficiency programs already offered by utilities, Batterberry said.
"Customers are motivated to save money but one of the problems with this industry is just a lack of awareness," he said.
___
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.
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