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| Too Much Government Focus |
| Aside from the interstate highway system and NASA, most of the other examples mentioned in this article for infrastructure development programs were largely funded by provate enterprise. If we are going to wait for the government to fund these initiatives than we will be waiting for a very long time. Private industry must take the first steps to deploy new technologies. I recognize this requires a shift from short-term to long term mindsets, but it must happen if we are to reap the benefits. It is time for US corporations to invest in tomorrow. |
| Louis Rosas-Guyon - 08/21/2008 - 05:47 |
| Solid article |
| Great article - well put. Agree with a previous post, private enterprise should do the heavy lifting. However, comprehensive, aggressive federal policy is crucial in coaxing pent up investment off of the sidelines and into the game. |
| Dana Hillman - 08/27/2008 - 05:54 |
| DG PV makes sense for the grid with and with out storag |
| The eventual "high penetration" of solar will be greatly aided by the smart grid which will interface with every inverter. I feel very strongly that "in-filling" the existing distribution grid with smart solar PV/inverters and multiple forms of storage will help the performance of the existing grid and deffer the need for increased T&D infrastructure as well as all types of central or peaking power generation. |
| Gregory Ashley - 09/02/2008 - 13:50 |
| smart grid |
| Accomplishing the development of a "SmartGrid" will need to include various efforts including large scale renewable generation coupled with major transmission links to urban centers, distributed generation on rooftops and ground locations, energy efficiency upgrades in lighting, heating, cooling and appliances and distributed control of discretionary electric loads. Reaching this goal will take not just the availability of the hardware, software and communications to coordinate the contribution of each resource, but the legal and regulatory changes needed to align the financial interests of the parties. Particularly important is convincing utility regulatory agencies to allow the rapid writeoff of existing utility metering assets. The policy of depreciating utility meters over a 20 year period makes utilities reluctant to scrap existing meter assets unless the investment can be justified with a rapid return (ie: do away with meter readers). In the past this has led to the widespread adoption of Itron drive-by and walk by metering and powerline meter reading systems with low data rates. More advanced thinking on the part of regulators, often difficult to achieve because most are political appointees, is necessary to unlock the opportunity for utilities to invest in truly advanced consumption control approaches. These need to include the ability of consumers to purchase energy on a time and cost to generate linked basis and to make simple decisions to trade off comfort and convenience against energy cost. The barriers that need to be overcome to achieve the "SmartGrid" will take twice as long to achieve without a federal mandate directing the states to move in that direction. Hopefully the next administration will accelerate the pace, which has taken several decades so far to achieve a modest level of penetration of the existing generation of "smart" meters, which will soon be seen as "dumb" meters once the barriers to a truley "smart" grid are removed. |
| Dennis Wilson - 09/30/2008 - 08:22 |
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Big Companies get what they want?
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