The Plumas and Sierra Counties in California are testing a smart grid using the television broadcasting system’s "white space".

"White space" is the part of the broadcast spectrum left vacant when television broadcasting is switched from analogue to digital. It can transmit data significantly faster than the current standard Internet Wi-Fi, and can be broadcast for extended distances and through obstacles - making it ideal for use in smart grid communications.

The Plumas and Sierra Counties are located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and present some very technical challenges with respect to wireless coverage - making them a good test site for the technology.

The smart grid trial is being conducted by Spectrum Bridge, which has a database which dynamically assigns white space frequences to prevent interfernce with TV broadcasts, Google which is providing power metering and control software and the local electricity and telecommunications utility.

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The media is fond of quoting claims that the internet will soon be using more power than the airline industry, that it will consume half of all the electricity produced or that two Google searches release as much CO₂ as boiling a kettle of water.

The Google search myth arose from a Times article in January 2009 which said that "a typical search generates about 7g of CO₂. Boiling a kettle generates about 15g". Urs Hölzle, Google’s Senior Vice President Operations, posted a response saying the typical search actually releases only 0.2 grams of CO₂ - that’s 75 searches per kettle. The Times has since published a "clarification" but the original figure still gets quoted.

On the broader issue, the amazing estimates of the amount of electricity that the internet supposedly uses stem from a 1999 article in Forbes magazine revealingly titled "Dig More Coal - the PCs Are Coming". The article claimed that the internet was then accounting for 8% of all electricity use with the total used by all computers (including the internet) amounting to 13%. Highly detailed studies by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory show that he actual figures at that time were less than 1% for the internet and about 3% for all computers.
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A company called MiserWare Inc, which is a spinoff from Virginia Tech, has launched a free program for Windows and Unix which is claimed to reduce power usage by 30%.

The program, called Granola, saves energy by applying dynamic voltage and frequency scaling to the CPU of the system. When a user is reading a website or working in a word processor, Granola scales down the power needed but when the CPU is running at full blast for graphics or other computing-intensive processes, the software draws more power.

According to the company, "a good analogy is a dimmer switch on your dining room light. When you are writing a letter at the table, you need the full light to be able to see your work, but when you are relaxing with a glass of wine after dinner, you don’t need the brightest available light. You turn down the dimmer to save energy (well, maybe not JUST to save energy) while you are relaxing."

Granola can be downladed at grano.la/software/index.php.

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A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers’ homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. Many governments see it as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues.

The United States Department of Energy estimates that modernization of US grids with smart grid capabilities would save between $US46 billion and $US117 billion over the next 20 years in that country alone. As a result, the Obama administration has committed $US7.1 billion to development of a smart grid.

But the US is far from being the only country making a big investment in smart grid technology. China is expected to invest $US7.3 billion in smart grid loans, grants and tax incentives this year. China’s State Grid Corp. has set a goal of building a smart grid by 2020. It is estimated China will need to spend as much as $10 billion a year through 2020 to achieve this.
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Cisco Systems Vice President, Marie Hattar, estimates that the "smart grid" could be 100 times, or even 1,000 times, the present size of the Internet.

The smart grid is a modernised electricity network which would deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability. Over time, people’s homes will have sensors in appliances, which will give detailed information to help cut electricity usage and help utilities avoid stressing the grid during peak times.

Cisco Systems estimates that just the communications portion of building smart grids will be worth $20 billion a year over the next five years. The company, whose networking equipment is installed in all corners of the Internet, intends to make communications equipment for the electricity grid - everything from routers in grid substations to home energy controllers.

"Our expectation is that this network will be 100 or 1,000 times larger than the Internet. If you think about it, some homes have Internet access, but some don’t. Everyone has electricity access - all of those homes could potentially be connected," Marie Hattar said.

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Internet security company McAfee has released a report which says that 62 trillion junk emails were sent in 2008. Spam makes up around 97 percent of all email traffic.

McAfee estimates that the electricity wasted by this much junk email would be sufficient to power 2.4 million US homes.

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The CSIRO has developed a way to network household and commercial fridges together in a way that lets them ‘negotiate’ with each other the best time to consume electricity.

According to Sam West, an engineer at the CSIRO. “A lot of people don’t realise that fridges cycle on and off regularly, which means you’ve got a bit of discretion about when they use power”. The controller enables communication between other fridges on the network and also the power source. It has the potential to smooth out fluctuations in electricity demand by enabling fridges to manage available power. Simulations have shown the technology is capable of supporting 10,000 or more networked units.

“The fridges work together to decide when to cool down, and thus consume power, based on how much surplus power will be available,” said West. “They are able to anticipate power shortages and change their running schedules accordingly to use as little power as possible during these times.”

The networked fridges are also able to take "surplus" energy produced by renewable sources such as solar panels and store it in thermal mass inside the unit. The technology could also be applied to other household appliances such as air-conditioners and clothes dryers.

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Scientists at Harvard University and IBM are hoping to harness the power of a million idle computers to develop a new, cheaper form of solar power.

Researchers have launched the project using IBM’s World Community Grid, which taps into volunteers’ computers across the globe to run calculations on a myriad of compounds — potentially shortening a project that could take 22 years to just two years.

Harvard scientists are hoping the project will allow it to discover a combination of organic materials that can be used to manufacture plastic solar cells that are cheaper and more flexible than the silicon-based ones typically used to turn sunlight into electricity.

If you’re interested in being a volunteer, all you meed to do is download a bit of software (which includes a security package), and the calculations run as a screensaver. Essentially, you’re volunteering your computer, as well as a fraction of your power - but this is one case where the power isn’t being wasted – it’s being used for a great environmental cause.

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The UK government is about to give away three thousand free "intelligent" refrigerators. The fridges, which will adapt their power use to the ebb and flow of demands on the national electricity grid, are to be given away in a trial by the UK government next year.

A report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change says that widespread use of this dynamic demand technology in Britain could save about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and a further £222 million ($au500 million) in energy savings. Dynamic demand technology can also be used for other devices such as air conditioners, immersion heaters and electric car chargers.

Paul Lazarevic, a director at RLtec, which will supply the dyanmic demand technology, said  "An algorithm device sits in the fridge and monitors grid frequency and if the grid frequency goes up or down it adjusts energy use within safe parameters. The beauty of it is that you don’t know it’s happening and there’s no safety risk with your fridge defrosting."

RLtec estimates that large numbers of appliances running with dynamic demand technology would create a "virtual power station" that could displace coal-fired generators. For example, fitting all the fridges in the UK with dynamic demand technology would allow the decommissioning of a 750-megawatt "back-up" power station.

General Electric has also announced that it will be selling "Smart Energy Enabled" refrigerators from 2009.

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The Australian electricity grid includes three major sections which are not connected:

• the so-called National Electricity Maket, linking all of the east coast and South Australia
• the Western Australian grid in the south west of Western Australia, centered on Perth and
• the Pilbara local grid serving the mining area in the north west.

Associate Professor Neil Howes has suggested linking  these three grids in order to make better use of Australia’s rich renewable energy porential.

In particular, a 1500 kilometre high voltage DC connection between Norseman in Western Aystralia and Port Augusta in South Australia would link the solar potential of the western deserts, the wind potential of the southern coast and the geothermal resources of South Australia into the eastern National Electricity Market. In addition, the time difference between the east and west coasts would extend the length of time during which daylight solar energy was available by three hours a day.

Professor Howes also suggests that a 1000 kilometre high voltage AC line be built connecting the southern Western Australian grid at Norseman with the northern Pilbara region, which has Australia’s best solar stes, as well as major mining and natural gas developments.

Dr David Mills, who was a leading solar researcher in Australia before founding Ausra which is now one of the world’s leading solar energy producers, has put forward a different proposal for the Pilbara region - that a powerline be built, not to the south, but to the north, to supply electricity to Indonesia and South-East Asia. Dr Mills points out that it makes much more sense to export electricity to Asia than to export gas which is then burned to generate electricity,

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