Honeywell partners with SoCal Ed to run demand response
Honeywell announced that it has been awarded $11.4 million dollars in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy. This grant is part of the single largest power infrastructure investment in U.S. history, totaling $3.4 billion. Honeywell is one of the four non-utility companies to receive grants.
Honeywell will be using the money to support demand response programs to be enacted in cooperation with Southern California Edison (SCE). The program will support almost 700 customers (primarily… Continue Reading
More names for the GreenBeat marquee: Gee, Wagner, and Wong
A new flock of experts and industry leaders has joined the roster for GreenBeat 2009, the seminal event on the Smart Grid, on Nov. 18 and 19. We are very excited to announce this group, as it spans analysts, purse-string holders, and an inspiring new entrepreneur in the space.
Before we introduce the new cast, remember to register for your GreenBeat ticket today, while you can still get it for $525 — the offer expires on… Continue Reading
SoCal Edison signs to buy 500 MW from new First Solar plants
Southern California Edison, the major utility that was conspicuously absent from last week’s bevy of applicants for smart grid stimulus funds, has forged a partnership with First Solar to buy electricity from two new thin-film photovoltaic plants slated to produce 550 megawatts for 170,000 homes.
The deal, still awaiting approval from California energy regulators, already names sites for the two plants — one to produce 300 megawatts and the other 250 — in San Bernadino and… Continue Reading
Edison, BP unite to deliver 90 MW of wind power
Southern California Edison is pursuing a 20-year contract to buy and distribute power generated by a BP Wind Energy-backed 90-megawatt wind farm in Idaho. The agreement is pending approval by the California Utilities Commission, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As part of the deal, the Edison International subsidiary would be able to purchase the energy for below market price (about 11.4 cents per kilowatt hour) — but transmitting it to California could raise the costs.
The wind… Continue Reading
Roundup: Cloud computing stays free, big wind in SoCal, open source business and more
Dell doesn’t get cloud computing — A bid by computer maker Dell to trademark the term “cloud computing”, a broad term generally used to describe services and software that live on the Internet, has been preliminarily rejected by the US Patent Office.
SoCal Edison signs for 900MW of wind — Following close on the heels of PG&E’s announcement of an enormous 800 megawatt solar power plant, Southern California Edison, which serves the other half of the state, has… Continue Reading
Duke Energy invests $100M in rooftop solar projects
Duke Energy — hardly your conventional renewable energy startup — has thrown its hat in the solar ring with a $100 million investment in commercial-scale rooftop solar panels.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, based electric utility will partner with commercial and residential property owners to tap into a growing market that has seen large investments in recent months from major utilities like Southern California Edison, which unveiled its own $875 million rooftop project in late March.
Like SCE,… Continue Reading
Solar outlook stays bright even as economy dims
While the market for silicon solar panels appears to be growing at a healthy clip, several factors could either retard or speed its development. A worldwide silicon shortage, government investment credits, energy prices and the existing financing and installation models for solar panels are all in flux. But recent developments in all of those sectors suggest a positive outlook for the sector.
First up, Trina Solar’s recent decision to cancel its $1b silicon plant is widely… Continue Reading