The open versus closed debate in smart grid has reached the highest halls of power. USA Today reports that Itron, Landis+Gyr, Elster and Aclara sent a letter to U.S. Senators requesting that they change a provision in the massive $819 billion stimulus bill that they say will favor companies like Silver Spring Networks and other smart grid companies. The charges revolve around the fact that the version of the stimulus bill that came out of Congress initially said that companies that wanted to qualify for the $4.5 billion in funding for upgrading the grid would have to adopt Internet standard protocols. The version that passed said that companies would have to use Internet protocols or other open standards. Older meter makers tend to use proprietary networking standards. The new companies like Silver Spring, Eka Systems and Trilliant have adopted open standards. The open versus closed debate has become a recent bone of contention. We posted a detailed story on the standards debate before the letter to the Senate was published. (Thank you very much, Jeff St. John.) "The initial language would have put some companies out of business," says Dan Delurey, executive director of the Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition, according to USA Today. Both arguments have merit. Proprietary standards are established and robust. Open standards, however, can adapt as technology changes and have long been associated with steep price declines and rapid technological adoption. Some further say that part of the network--the part that connects household devices to the meter -- needs to be open while other parts -- the segment connecting the meters to substations --  could be open or closed. Overall, open standards appear to have the upper hand. Itron and company, in fact, are adapting to open standards. As Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck pointed out, about one-third of utilities favor proprietary standards. But that means they are outnumbered two to one by utilities that want to see open standards.

Ice Energy, which makes systems that make ice with cheap power at night and use it to chill air conditioners in the day to save on expensive peak power demands, is making a big play at the utility-scale market — and it has a smart grid tie-in to make the deal sweeter. The Windsor, Colo.-based startup says its Ice Bear devices are cheaper and cleaner than natural gas-fired "peaker" plants that utilities now largely rely on to generate power at peak load times — and the air conditioners the devices will help power down can make up nearly half of that peak load demand during hot summer afternoons. In October, Ice Energy closed $33 million in funding led by Energy Capital Partners, which has committed to spending up to $150 million more to finance utility purchasing of the systems (see Ice Energy Picks Up Cool $33M for Hybrid AC). With smart grid technologies now front and center in utilities' business plans, the company has now incorporated a "Cool Data Controller" for its systems, that can let utilities dispatch the devices on demand or pre-set them to run during expected peak times, said Therese Wells, marketing director. "That is what allows the utilities to control how the resource is used," Wells said from the floor of the DistribuTech conference in San Diego on Wednesday. "This makes a great alternative to peaker plants, and it's ready to deploy today, at scale." Utilities could buy the systems — tapping New Energy Partners' $150 million — or investors could buy them and contract the power they save to utilities through power purchase agreements, said Greg Miller, a market development director for Ice Energy. It's a bit like the demand-response offerings from companies like Comverge and EnerNOC — power not used at peak time is power that utilities don't have to build new generation and transmission to create and provide. It can also be seen as a way to store power, which is going to be important to incorporate wind power — wind blows the strongest at night — into the transmission grid (see Gridpoint to Manage Wind Power Battery Storage, Batteries for the Grid, Q&A: MegaWatt Storage Targets Utilities and Startup ES&P to Store Electricity in the Air). Honeywell (NYSE:HON) is installing Ice Bears on about 300 rooftops as part of a $4.25-million program with utility Southern California Edison, and Ice Energy in in talks with about 20 utilities interested in the systems, Wells said. Ice Energy has sold its systems to Napa Valley Community College and the city of Victorville, Calif., and hopes to land more large-scale deals like that soon, Miller said. The company got $25 million from Goldman Sachs, Good Energies and Second Avenue Partners and Sail Venture Partners in 2007 and also raised a $10 million seed round, according to Earth2Tech.

Despite all the layoffs you read about in the solar world, the market is clearly not dead yet. Borrego Solar Systems, which installs residential and utility-scale solar systems, has raised $14 million from a strategic investor. Borrego is one of the older, and more successful, installers out there. The California company has been planting solar systems since 1980. It has landed deals to market solar systems with Sam's Club. It also relentlessly advertises on NPR. Part of the appeal to investors, of course, is that Borrego has a track record. It garnered around $60 million in revenue last year. Installers tend to work on thinner margins than solar panel providers, but $60 million is tough to argue with. Pay more attention to installation. For the past few decades, most of the research and development in solar has been spent on improving the quality and efficiency of solar panels themselves. Very little attention has been paid to installation, although close to half of the cost of a solar system revolves around putting panels in place. Some of the companies, along with Borrego, that have worked to reduce the installation cost include Solar City, which has a novel application for organizing truck rolls to reduce inefficient installation procedures, and Sungevity, which can do estimates for installs over the Web. Part of the money will be used to develop low-cost installation techniques, the company said. The other part will be used to expand its footprint on the East Coast. New Jersey is second to California in solar. Weirdly, there's no mention of who put the $14 million into the company. Borrego won't identify the investor for about a month. The only thing the company will say is that it is a strategic investor that is a publicly traded company and not a venture firm.

Thin-film solar startup HelioVolt has replaced its CEO B.J. Stanbery with one of its board members while it seeks a permanent chief executive.

The Austin-based company said Wednesday that Stanbery, who founded the company in 2001, will remain its chief strategy officer and chairman of the board. Ron Bernal, a board member and a partner at Sequel Venture Partners, will serve as the interim CEO.

HelioVolt, which just opened its first factory last October, also named Sanjeev Kumar as its chief financial officer. Kumar was the former CFO of Energy Conversion Devices.

The company is changing its head honcho at a time when it prepares to start its first-ever commercial production of solar panels made with copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS).