Public Power - October 2008 - (Page 26)

An Energy Revolution Line up the reels not the trailer Plug-in hybrid electric cars hold great potential for reducing carbon emissions and deployment of distributed energy storage. Photo of plug-in Prius courtesy of Toyota Motor Corp. Turret Trailers Available in one, two, three, or four reel configurations. These galvanized turret frames lock on 6 degree intervals. Mobile frame units are ideal for use with your existing vehicles! Get more information on these and other useful products such as Pole Trailers, Self-Loading Trailers, Pullers and much more. Call our toll-free number below. 10 North Sauber Road Virgil, IL 60151 ph. 800.323.9147 fax 800.833.3264 SAUBERMFG.COM 26 OCTOBER 2008 ties, including the possibility of using car batteries as a vast distributed storage system for intermittent wind and solar power. Google is among those working on the data and network management challenges that the technology presents. In an experiment with Pacific Gas & Electric Co., solar panels were installed at the Googleplex to charge plug-in hybrid cars. As demand requires, the flow reverses, drawing energy out of the car batteries. The cars serve, in other words, as micropeakers. Even at today’s solar prices, it would cost the equivalent of just $2.35 per gallon to fuel up an all-electric car; by 2015 that figure is projected to drop to $1.30 per gallon. Batteries—Batteries themselves are undergoing a transformation, as well, thanks to researchers like Angela Belcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Belcher reengineers viruses so they grab conductive metals and then line themselves up into a pattern so orderly they pack in four times the energy of the next best battery. Xcel Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories are working on a 1-megawatt battery pack for utility use. The emerging innovations are exciting—in large-scale centralized storage, such as pumped hydro, compressed air, thermal storage, decentralized storage like plug-in hybrid vehicles, and especially in energy intelligence. The load management technology from D.C.-based Gridpoint, for example, enables utilities to move power from any source—rooftop solar, large-scale wind or fossil fuels—into smart batteries in customer basements. Then, when demand spikes or generation falls off, they can move that power back onto the grid. A lot of smart money is now flowing into these technologies—not only from venture capitalists like John Doerr, who was Google’s first funder—but also from giants like Wal-Mart, which has set a goal to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy. These investors see immense profit potential in a world where reducing carbon dioxide pollution is a growing priority. They also see, in solar and wind, a hedge against the rising cost of fossil fuels and the plants that burn them. According to Cambridge Energy Research, conventional power plant costs in the United States have risen more than 130 percent since 2000, and 27 percent just in the last year; capital costs now average $1 billion to $3 billion per 1,000 megawatts installed. Wind—With new forecasting tools, like the one built by AWS Truewind, wind can safely supply 20 percent of the nation’s power without risk of disruption, according PUBLIC POWER http://www.SAUBERMFG.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - October 2008

Public Power - October 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions The Future of Fuels in a Carbon-Constrained World An Energy Revolution Energy Policy in 2009 and Beyond A Green Reincarnation Beyond the Green Bandwagon Reliability Green Energy Community Broadband Customer Service Hometown Connections Human Resources Parting Shot

Public Power - October 2008

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