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Wireless spectrum has long been the true arena in the communications industry where the team that holds the most territory is usually the network that will have the most control.  This has been a common place for strategic purchases amongst wireless carriers.  So common, that I had completely forgotten about the importance of spectrum until a new player came in to the game. In today's article from Gigaom, "Utilities Want More Spectrum, Too", the focus is on the utilities and how the evolution of smart grid is making the utilities realize the need for wireless spectrum.  The more features (smart meters, remote monitoring and access, and application support) the utilities are going to promote with their smart grid solution, the more bandwidth these entities will need.  To accomplish this, the utilities can create their own networks or partner with a third-party vendor.  As you may recall in a previous article, "How Smart is the Smart Energy Industry", we talked ...

GE made the news today with its investment in the Alta Wind I farm in Kern County, California.  This made me want to dig a little deeper to get a better idea of GE Energy Financial Service's strategy.  I went into their website to see their wind energy portfolio and the kind of activity has occurred between December 2010 and this latest announcement.  What I found was interesting and seems to correlate with GE's stock activity. Take a look at the charts and you'll see December's break out, but inability to break out of the current channel (and overhead resistance in January) Here's some of the highlights for December: CPV Renewable Energy Company $65,000,000 152-megawatt wind project located 12 miles southwest of Woodward, Oklahoma Horizon Wind Energy LLC $111,000,000 The farms are located in Rattlesnake Road, Oregon (103 MW); Meridian Way, north central Kansas (201 MW); and Pioneer Prairie, northeastern Iowa (300 MW). $117,000,000 225-megawatt wind fa...

Renewable Energy Certificates (REC's) are starting to buzz more often in my ears, so I figured that it was time to begin understanding what will someday become the "alternative" market for trading. Renewable Electricity Certificates or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs) is viewed as the solution that will help states meet their Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) sooner, if not more aggressively. To simplify how the process works, here's my take: 1. Grid-tied producer of electricity (solar, wind...pick your flavor) produces a) electricity and b) the REC. 2. Once the renewable-based electricity is created and sent to the grid, there is no way of distinguishing between electricity generated from other sources. ("Come on! I swear my 1-panel system is powering Grand Central Station.") 3. The solution is to give the point of generation 1 REC for every megawatt of electricity contributed to the grid. 4. This gives you the two products (electricity a...

As the first Monday of the new year approaches, I wanted to start off this post by reiterating the importance of viewing your industry with the big picture in mind.  When I was doing my first solar installation, one of the rooftop ramblings involved the close and obvious relationship between solar and electricity vehicles. Now the idea of electric cars is not new.  Neither is the idea of charging stations.  However, the opportunities that present themselves are great for those that want to get in to solar, electrical technician positions, and yes, even smart grid.  As the charging stations become more popular and we see the charging stations appear as frequently as the highway rest stop, there should be a demand for technicians to service those stations. The article brought up an interesting issue on load clusters that helped broaden my own perspective on the career possibilities with charging stations.  The article states, "Load clusters occur when several ...