Silver Spring pumps another $15M into smart grid tech
Silver Spring Networks, a company that wirelessly connects residential smart meters with utilities, has added another $15 million to its now $90 million fourth round of funding, reports VentureWire. Open since October, the round will help the company expand and bring more utilities into its fold.
Silver Spring, which competes with other smart grid meter companies like GridPoint, Ambient and SmartSynch, says it has about 500,000 homes in its network. These homes are outfitted with meters… Continue Reading
GridPoint lands more funds for smarter utility use
GridPoint, one of the largest companies in the emerging smartgrid sector, announced that it has brought in an undisclosed sum from Craton Equity Partners. Already working with several investor-owned utilities like Duke Energy Corp. and Xcel Energy, GridPoint says its system automatically manages energy loads and storage, integrates renewable sources and can be used to power electric vehicles more efficiently.
That last function is of particular importance to GridPoint, which acquired V2Green, a company that makes… Continue Reading
DOE and X Prize pledge $150M in new clean technology grants
The U.S. DOE will invest up to $50 million in nine electric grid efficiency demonstration projects over the next 5 years, an an effort to reduce peak load demand in ways that could prevent the need for more power plants.
These so-called Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration (RDSI) technologies have become a key focus for the federal and local governments, which hope to reduce peak load electricity demand by at least 15% at distribution points.
Though it… Continue Reading