Feds Gang Up to Get ‘Green’ Transmission Built

Lost amidst all the excitement over President Barack Obama's announcement of $3.4 billion in Department of Energy smart grid grants on Tuesday, the federal government took a small step toward getting the nation's transmission grid up to speed.

That step was a memorandum of understanding between nine federal agencies to expedite the siting and building of transmission lines – mainly, the new lines that will be needed to bring renewable power from remote wind farms and solar plants to cities where it's needed - across federal lands.

The agencies – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy and the Interior – said they'll establish a one-track system for handling environmental and administrative review of transmission proposals.

They also plan to help coordinate the same process at other federal, state and tribal agencies involved, according to a Wednesday announcement from FERC, which has called for more federal authority over transmission projects (see Green Light post).

Considering the tangle of overlapping jurisdictions that proposed trans-state transmission projects have to navigate, making it simpler is no small task.

Even building new transmission lines within a state's borders can be difficult, as some proposed projects in California have found out (see California 'Green' Transmission Lines Could Cost $15.7B).

But the country is expected to need hundreds of billions of dollars of new transmission capacity if it wants to meet its renewable and clean energy goals (see Wind Growth Could Cost Eastern U.S. $80B in Transmission Lines).

New high-voltage power lines aren't the same stuff of dreams as smart meters, solar-powered cities and electric cars plugged into every garage. President Barack Obama gave the topic only two sentences in his Tuesday speech in Florida to announce the smart grid grants (see the Washington Post's transcript).

But for would-be transmission developers like ITC Holdings or Tres Amigas LLC, any steps, even on paper, to simplify their jobs would likely be welcomed (see Tres Amigas: Triple-Linking Transmission Grids).

Intellon Gets $4.9M DOE Grant for HomePlug

HomePlug – the would-be hard-wired technology alternative to wireless networks for home energy management systems – just got a $4.9 million Department of Energy boost.

That's the value of the grant given to Intellon Corp. on Tuesday – one of a handful of grants from the DOE's $3.4 billion smart grid program given to a company that isn't a utility (see DOE's $3.4B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners).

Intellon announced Wednesday it intends to match that grant with $4.9 million of its own to make an integrated circuit to match a new set of specifications coming out of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance.

The idea is to use a home's existing wiring to carry data between smart meters and the smart thermostats, smart appliances, smart energy displays and other gadgets envisioned for the home.

Those could work in tandem with or independently of wireless systems like ZigBee, but might be the best choice for places like apartments, where basement smart meters could be separated from apartments by yards of concrete, industry watchers say (see The Smart Home, Part I).

Intellon's new integrated circuit is intended to meet the requirements of HomePlug's "Green PHY" powerline communications specification expected to be finished later this year, the company announced Wednesday.

That new specification "modifies the industry-leading HomePlug AV powerline technology to create a lower data rate, lower power and lower cost smart grid solution," Intellon announced. In other words, HomePlug wants to make its technology cheaper and less power-hungry to meet utilities needs for an ultra-cheap solution for linking millions of customers homes (see Utilities Mull Price Points, Policies for Home Energy Management).

HomePlug has aligned its efforts with the ZigBee Alliance, another group that's seeking to popularize the low-power ZigBee wireless protocol to link up all those in-home energy management devices.

So far, ZigBee has had a lot of success in getting utilities to try it out, though WiFi, Z-Wave and other wireless technology providers are also working on that market (see More WiFi For Home Energy Controls and RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).

More on Generating Power With Silicon Nanowires

Silicon nanowires and nanotubes – tendrils of pure silicon that stand up like small trees on a substrate and have a number of remarkable properties – are one of those things that have made scientists and industrialists exclaim: "These are fabulous. What do we do with them?"

So far, their main function has been to act as the subject of really cool images from advanced microscopes and serve as a public face for the potential of nanotechnology.

But it's becoming clear that nano silicon may someday generate power out of waste heat. The U.S. consumes 100 quads of energy a year and 55 to 60 quads (a quadrillion BTUs) gets dissipated, often as waste heat, according to Arun Majumdar, who just left the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs to run ARPA-E and work under his old and new boss Steve Chu.

MC10, a startup (and part-time hip hop star) out of the University of Illinois is experimenting with ways to create thermoelectric devices to convert heat into electricity with silicon nanotubes. The nanotubes are one-dimensional structures: that means that the nanotubes have length but no width or height from a physical standpoint. One-dimensional objects (like carbon nanotubes) are ideal for conducting heat or power because it is difficult to scatter or deflect whatever is being transported. It's like a maglev train for molecules.

Similarly, Photonic Devices, a collaboration between Caltech, the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Oklahoma are looking at waste heat capture devices. Oklahoma has been researching how to employ silicon nanowires in this way.

California's Alphabet Energy has also been working on silicon nanowire waste heat devices. Majumdar oversaw some of the work conducted by Alphabet and Photonic and MC10 just got grants from ARPA-E. Imagine that.

California Passes Smart Grid Bill

If California utilities weren't already working on their smart grid plans, a new state law has given them a deadline to catch up to.

That's July, 1, 2011 – the date set in California Senate Bill 17, passed earlier this month, for each "electrical corporation" to deliver a broad smart grid implementation plan to the California Public Utilities Commission for approval.

But first, the CPUC will have to have its own plan to judge utility plans against. That plan is due by July 1, 2010, according to the bill.

Think of it as the state-by-state coordination with still-developing federal smart grid policy. That work is being coordinated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and represents a gargantuan effort to make sure smart grid technologies and systems work together (see Smart Grid Standards Roadmap Unveiled).

NIST's most recent smart grid roadmap sets a range of deadlines for handling top standards and interoperability issues, but all are set to be completed by the end of 2010 – six months before California's law would require utilities to report their own plans.

Of course, California utilities haven't been waiting to start deploying smart meters, distribution automation and demand response systems, and other pieces of smart grid technology.

The three big investor-owned utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric – are deploying smart meters by the millions, and have plans for extending more energy information awareness and control to those smart metered customers.

They're also looking ahead to storing energy on the grid – an important consideration when looking at the state's aggressive goals to get a third of its power from renewable resources by 2020 (see PG&E Wants DOE Dollars for Underground Air Energy Storage and SoCal Edison Wants A123's Biggest Grid Battery Ever).

Public utilities such as the Sacramento Municipal Utility District are also laying smart grid plans (see DOE's $3.4B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners).

A123 Systems Expands in Japan

Tokyo correspondent Hayashi Sakawa points out that A123 systems has entered into an alliance with IHI, a large equipment maker, to collaborate on products for the transportation, industrial and marine markets.

IHI is one of those huge companies you've never heard of. It is 155 years old and works with Toyota, Mitsubishi and others. The reference to the marine market is interesting. Ports seem poised for a green overhaul, according to Julian Gresser of Manatt, Phelps. (Gresser has also taught international law at Harvard.) For one thing, they are dirty. Most of the equipment runs on diesel fuel. For another, they are often located near research universities and large industrial hubs, making them ideal incubators for new technologies.

"Eighty percent of every major industry depends on ports yet there is not a single mention of ports in the energy bill," he told us earlier this year. Some companies, such as Vycon, have begun to market cranes with regenerative power production to reduce fuel consumption. Others have proposed plates that can absorb kinetic energy from passing trucks. Travis Bradford also tells me that green shipping is growing.

A123 and IHI could find quite a lot of opportunities in marine.

Tax Breaks for Ice Air Conditioners? A Proposal Is in Congress

Install an ice maker; get a tax break.

Congressional representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA), Wally Herger (R-CA) and Earl Pomeroy (D-S.D.) have introduced the Thermal Energy Cooling and Heating Act of 2009 (HR 3918) that would give a 30 percent tax credit and accelerated depreciation to individuals or businesses that install thermal energy systems that reduce peak demand.

The primary thermal energy system on the market today that fits this description is the ice cooler marketed by both Ice Energy and Calmac. In these systems, ice is made at night when power is cheaper (or generated but not consumed). It then melts during the day: Heat exchangers allow the chilly vapors to circulate through the building and cool them.

The definition also seems to include solar air conditioners, which use heat collectors and evaporating refrigerants to cool buildings. Chromasun is working on those.

There are a couple of trends wrapped into this bill:

1. Energy efficiency is getting more attention. Right now, businesses that install solar receive a 30 percent tax credit. You can get an 30 percent tax credit for energy efficiency retrofits, but only for the first $1,500 of work. The Thermal Act provides what seem to be comparable incentives. Secretary of Energy Steve Chu has long been a supporter of improving building energy efficiency.

2. Waxman-Markey may get piecemeal'ed. The bill hasn't passed yet, of course. And if it doesn't, expect to see a flurry of bills that concentrate on very specific parts of the overall bill. Efficiency enjoys bipartisan support. It cuts power consumption and generally can help create jobs because much of the revenue is generated from installation.

3. Air conditioning is cool and lots of new companies have come into the market (see the cavalcade here). In all, air conditioners gobble up around 5.2 percent of the total energy in the U.S. and about 10 percent of the electricity. (Building operations account for around 39 percent of U.S. power according to the Department of Energy and 13 percent of that power in residential and commercial buildings goes to air conditioners.) Not only are air conditioners themselves inefficient, the sensors and other mechanisms often aren't networked property for dynamic control. Walk around your building and count the female co-workers who are wrapped up in Snuggies sometime.

4. Air conditioning is going to get even cheaper. Utilities are currently contemplating programs under which they would pay for new AC units. A rebate and a tax credit? What CFO could say no?