Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Control Your Meter, Other News

If you have not heard about this tech by now then you must be hiding out in a dingy cave somewhere. This is going to be one of the next best things and help push for a newer (and hopefully more sustainable) energy infrastructure. AKA the smart grid. The technology is long overdue.

What am I talking about? Monitoring your power meter. It is such a big deal that Google has even built their own application that is now in beta. Today there is also an article about a Raleigh conservation company that has also built their own tool for this.

Energy saver ready for tests
A Raleigh energy conservation company will begin testing a household technology this spring in Raleigh apartments and Fayette ville homes that will let homeowners remotely adjust thermostats when no one's home.

Consert's system can cut household energy use by 10 percent to 15 percent, said Roy Moore, the company's chief development officer. The technology will also tell homeowners how much money they're saving and how much they're cutting greenhouse gases.

Also governors in the Midwest are starting to push for alternative energy. That part of the country appears to be a good place for it and, with a better and more efficient energy grid in place, should easily be able to supply surround states out to the coasts. Of course right now they are pushing for an increase in ethanol use.

Midwest govs seek to bolster alternative energy
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, and Republican Govs. John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota want the administration to take several steps to make ethanol blends more available and promote wind energy.

"We will pay a price in the future if we don't have that strategic plan, that vision and that sustained effort behind developing domestic renewable energy," Hoeven said in a news conference surrounding meetings of the National Governors Association.

And it is not just the Midwest looking at alternative energy. Buena, NJ is currently considering a solar park propoal:
BUENA: Officials consider solar park
Borough officials last night listened favorably to an idea for a solar power generation park and a “green technology” education center on the site of a former rag factory off the Boulevard.

Mays Landing resident James Connelly, the would-be developer, outlined the $3.6 million proposal for Borough Council.

A spot of rain on a sunshine day though, the satellite that would have monitored green gases did not reach orbit.

NASA satellite crashes minutes after launch
The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:55 a.m. PT (4:55 a.m. ET).

But the payload fairing -- a clamshell-shaped structure that allows the satellite to travel through space -- failed to separate from the rocket, NASA officials said.


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