By Liz Enbysk

SGN Managing Editor

Early on London hoped to produce "the greenest Olympics ever" – for instance, generating enough new renewable energy to cover the amount of energy that will be consumed. A report at EurActiv.com suggests all of its ambitious sustainability goals may not be met, but not for lack of trying.

It should come as no surprise that London's Olympic organizers wanted to showcase the region's commitment to sustainability. In many areas, England and the rest of the UK have been leaders in the race to a low-carbon / clean energy future:

·         Just recently we told you that the UK ranked number one in energy efficiency among 12 of the world's major economies.

·         In April we introduced you to a project in southeast  England that is pointing the way to faster, cheaper wind integration

·         And we've talked about ambitious plans for smart meter rollouts, such as E.ON's commitment to install one million smart meters across the UK by 2014.

But as in other parts of the world, there are challenges in the UK . The ambitious smart meter rollouts planned in the next couple of years have their "don't smart meter

It all sounds pretty familiar from where we sit across the pond. The U.S. has certainly seen the smart meter backlash; just last week we told you about the Texas woman who pulled out a gun to stop a smart meter installation.  And we've run stories about wind power's uncertain future here as Production Tax Credits are set to expire at year end.

But if some things ring familiar, there are also some very interesting smart grid trials and projects underway in England that may not be so familiar.  One example:  An article in The Engineer describes how the government, through its energy regulator Ofgem , is making £500m available to regional distribution network operators to test different smart grid technologies. You can read about some of those projects here.