Pour pouvoir recharger 30 voitures électriques simultanément, une gestion sophistiquée de l'énergie est nécessaire. Des chercheurs de l'Institut Fraunhofer d'ingénierie industrielle (IAO) de Stuttgart (Bade-Wurtemberg) mettent au point un réseau intelligent pour la plus grande station de recharge allemande. L'électricité chargée y sera de sources renouvelables.
Google isn’t the only one interested in the kind of data that can come from a connected thermostat.
The information smart thermostats collect — such as when energy demand peaks — can be immensely useful to utility companies, which have to determine how much power they need to keep their subscribers happy.
A one-meter-square gray box studded with green lights sits in a hallway near the laboratory of materials scientist Eric Wachsman, director of the Energy Research Center at the University of Maryland. It is a mockup of a fuel-cell device that runs on natural gas, producing electricity at the same cost as a large gas plant.
The box is designed to house stacks of solid-oxide fuel cells that differ from their conventional counterparts in a dramatic way: they’re projected to produce electricity for $1 per watt, down from $8 in today’s commercial versions, thanks to improvements that Wachsman has made in the ceramic materials at their heart.
Only two of the long-awaited 248 projects of common interest (PCI) to link Europe’s energy network will be smart grids, the European Commission has said, in an oft-predicted setback for plans to rationally manage energy demand and integrate renewable sources.
Few of the PCIs listed will be chosen to receive funding from the €5.85 billion pot which the EU has available for cross-border network projects that advance Europe’s single energy market, security of supply, and the bloc’s low carbon objectives.
Europe’s ambitious plan for 80% market penetration of smart meters by 2020 is failing to live up to expectations. A senior energy official at the European Commission admits that market penetration is still very low, particularly in the new member states, and that there is a big shortfall in investment.
According to Jan Panek, head of unit for the internal market at the Commission’s energy department, so far €6 billion has been invested in 300 smart meter projects across Europe.
“But we need more investment: €50 billion for 250 million smart meters by 2020, and €480 billion to upgrade the rest of the grid system by 2030”, he told an audience at EU Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels.
A novel software tool could make it far easier to bring new energy storage technologies to market.
If we’re ever going to run the world on intermittent renewable energy, we’re going to need to change the power grid, making it smarter and more adaptable, extending transmission lines to connect far flung wind farms, and adding something that we only have a very small scale right now—the ability to store electricity generated when the sun is shining for use when it isn’t.
