Google Invests in Silver Spring; Expect More

I don;t get what makes Silver Spring so special. Sure they have a good system, but so does Itron (who happens to have contracts for the rest of California), Trilliant, and Landis + Gyr. And these folks have been at it longer, with generally lower costs, and are profitable to boot. Is this just the Silicon Valley hype machine?

This is great news for Silver Spring, and for the industry as a whole. Google continues to validate the smart grid and energy monitoring market, first with its introduction of PowerMeter, and now it has validated smart meters and the smart grid. With PowerMeter, Google has validated the valuable role of energy monitoring in empowering end users with the information they need to take control of their personal energy consumption. With the investment in Silver Spring, it has also thrown its weight behind the smart metering business as well.

While smart meters and the smart grid are a great step towards more efficient, integrated utilities delivery, we need to keep in mind that this is not the end game.

While the smart grid is certainly more efficient, it is still a separate walled garden that does not integrate with important services, such as renewable energy. Eventually, the smart grid will need to evolve and embrace the openness of renewable energy systems, which already have the capabilities to sync and integrate with many other renewable energy systems via open energy management solutions.

I work with Fat Spaniel—http://www.fatspaniel.com—one of the companies that designs these open energy management platforms. We’re already working with thousands of energy systems across more than 15 countries to help them monitor and manage all of their renewable energy systems from one central platform. This increases the efficiency, performance and production of these systems significantly.

And now we’re working with leaders in smart grid technology, too, to help move the industry forward. We look forward to the day where the walls are broken down between traditional utilities and renewable energy systems, so that all can be managed and monitored via one integrated platform—which will not only maximize the production and efficiency of these systems, but also make them far more cost effective.

And that’s the final point I think we all need to keep in consideration—how do we achieve great systems like these in a cost effective manner? In today’s economic climate, and with significant amounts of stimulus money being proposed for the advancement of these projects, it is no longer enough just to be green. We need to be able to pair eco responsibility with fiscal responsibility, and open energy monitoring helps achieve that.