Google opens PowerMeter to energy monitors

Google on Wednesday released the API for its PowerMeter energy-monitoring Web application, a move that could let people get detailed home energy data without the need for a smart meter.

The Web application gives people a real-time graph of electricity usage and historical data with the goal of providing clues on how to ratchet down power use.

So far, Google has partnered with a few utilities which are offering PowerMeter to consumers as part of smart-meter rollouts. One device maker, which makes The Energy Detective (TED) monitor, has an option to displayelectricity data on PowerMeter.

PowerMeter creates a readout of a home's electricity use over the course of a day.

(Credit: Google)

By making the PowerMeter application programming interface available to outsiders, Google hopes that device makers and software developers will build applications that make energy information available to consumers, wrote program manager Srikanth Rajagopalan on the Google Code blog, adding that the API follows privacy guidelines and give consumers access to their information.

Google started working with smart-meter manufacturers because those two-way meters can be used to track electricity use in detail within a home. For example, one early beta tester of PowerMeter discovered that a pool pump consumed a big chunk of his electricity bill and ran it less frequently to cut electric bills.

There are a number of companies developing home monitoring devices, or displays, which can use different methods for gathering detailed electricity data. For example, TED and Powerhouse Dynamics' eMonitor device are typically installed by electricians who put clamps onto the cables that go into circuit boards to monitor current going to each circuit. Other device manufacturers have proposed getting meter data with a gateway using the wireless protocol used for automated meter reading.

Although Google's goal is to encourage third-party developers to connect to PowerMeter, it's possible that not all device manufacturers will be enthusiastic about doing that because PowerMeter is free at this point. Some energy-monitoring companies are developing proprietary software and, in some cases, plan to charge a monthly fee to get detailed usage electricity information from the Web.

Source: news.cnet.com

Innovations grow at Greener Gadgets confab

With the Empower device-charging rocking chair, I can juice up my iPhone while telling kids to get off my lawn.

(Credit: Ryan Klinger)

I recently saw the film "2012," where Earth appears to finally tire of the human race and decides to get rid of us. That, coupled with what seems to be an increasing number of natural disasters, makes me think that maybe it's time we take this green-tech thing seriously.

Apparently I'm not alone. Last week in New York, eco-minded thinkers gathered for Greener Gadgets, a conference aimed at sharing ideas for environmentally friendly gizmos. One stand-out event was the Green Gadgets Design Competition, where concepts from around the world were voted on by the public, then assessed by a panel of judges, as well as audience members.

First place went to a concept app using an iPhone as a demo. The Augmented Living Goods project, invented by a student in the U.S., uses your smartphone's camera to scan the bar code on produce. It then consults a database and, after fixing your position with GPS, tells you how far your potential food has traveled and if it's currently in season locally, as well as historical pricing among other data that's useful for helping consumers make more informed, sustainable choices in what they purchase and eat.

Great green gizmos (photos)

   

Second place went to something I'd actually like to see in every apartment in the near future. It's a solar panel with two integrated USB chargers. As more and more gadgets (cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, etc.) start adopting USB "trickle" charging, the demand for USB power goes up. This Illumi-Charger by U.S.-based GreenWaves.org stores power when it's not charging your devices in integrated batteries. That way the bottleneck is in the USB interface, not the amount of light it's absorbing. Pretty smart.

And third place went to the Empower, a concept for an electricity-generating rocking chair (no, really) by Ryan Klinger also of the U.S. It's simple, but smart. The power is sent through USB ports to trickle-charge your phone or iPod, or even to a regular 110 plug for a laptop or other standard-powered device.

There were lots more great ideas, too. Click through our gallery to see other finalists, including an energy-generating rocking toy that teaches kids about conservation and power generation; a unit that sorts through batteries and only sends power to those in need of juice; and a lamp that doubles as a charging station for small electrical devices.

Then let us know which ones you, the reader, think are not just the most innovative concepts, but also the ones most likely to make it to market. Let's have at it in the comments.

Source: news.cnet.com

Parsing fact from fiction with the Bloom Energy box

Boy, did I pick a lousy week to leave the country for a family vacation.

What did I miss? Well, a company seems to have come out of nowhere, raised loads of money, has retired Gen. Colin Powell on its board, and made some audacious claims about reinventing the energy business. As I dug through last week's news, I asked myself: Is Bloom Energy's public relations blitz to be believed?

The short answer, it appears, is "yes." But don't expect miracles.

For people in the green-tech industry, digging up information on Bloom Energy has been like the fruitless quest for El Dorado. Finally, last week, Bloom Energy orchestrated a grand introduction to the world, revealing its fuel cell technology and naming a number of companies already using the Bloom Energy Server.

Many viewers of the 60 Minutes segement may have simply been surprised that Silicon Valley's movers and shakers are working so seriously on clean energy. Even for those in the know, though, Bloom Energy's technology is intriguing and brings fuel cells, which many people have dismissed as technically challenged, back into the discussion over the future of energy.

So how do their claims stack up? Based on company-provided materials, they look pretty good. But keep in mind, solid oxide fuel cells are a well known technology with understood benefits and limitations.

Meet the Bloom box (images)

       

Fuel cell apps in action. Fuel cell technology was most recently on the tech media's radar last year when the Department of Energy proposed cutting research for fuel-cell vehicles, which have been touted for many years as the ultimate green car solution. Mobile fuel cells have formidable technical challenges, notably storing enough hydrogen for a long driving range, and the lack of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure. Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridar told reporters at least twice during last week's press conference that the technology was not developed for cars, an indication of how much people associate fuel cells with vehicles.

Google develops prototype mirror for solar energy

Google has developed a prototype for a new mirror technology that could cut by half the cost of building a solar thermal plant, the company's green energy czar said on Friday.

Bill Weihl said that if development and testing go well, he could see the product being ready in one to three years.

"Things have progressed," Weihl said in an interview. "We have an internal prototype."

Bill Weihl, Google's green-energy czar.

(Credit: Google)

Google has been looking at unusual materials for the mirror's reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted.

In solar thermal technology, the sun's energy is used to heat a substance that produces steam to run a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance.

The Internet search engine company, which has been investing in companies and doing research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy, wants to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun.

Key senators do not see climate bill in 2010

The U.S. Senate is unlikely to pass a comprehensive climate change bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this year, according to a Reuters survey of 12 key Democrat and Republican Senators who could hold the swing votes.

While the Obama administration and a bipartisan core of senators still hope there is life for a climate change bill that would put a price on carbon emissions and help reinvigorate ailing international talks, the senators interviewed by Reuters this week were much more pessimistic.

The survey underscores that global warming--a scientific finding still hotly disputed by many Americans--could end up being set aside by politicians focusing on issues that hold more appeal to voters ahead of congressional elections in November.

"The economy has got to be given a major boost, particularly when it comes to jobs. I think that's going to be our focus," said senior Democratic Senator Carl Levin. His home state of Michigan is suffering from high unemployment and manufacturers there fear the higher energy prices a climate bill would bring could make things even worse.

"And if we can do something on health care this year, those two things are going to use up most of the oxygen. So it's hard for me to see how we get to the climate issue," Levin said.

If the Senate fails this year to pass a bill reducing domestic carbon dioxide pollution, which is blamed for global warming, it would be a further blow to global negotiators seeking to cobble together a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

It also would put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in charge, at least for the time being, of forcing such pollution controls. But even EPA this week notified Congress it would move somewhat more slowly with regulations and only against the big polluters.

As Congress returned to Washington from a week-long recess, Reuters queried 16 of the 100 senators this week, most of whom had not yet announced whether they would support or oppose specific climate legislation. As swing votes, they would be the focus of any upcoming Senate fight to pass a bill.

Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana "doesn't think the climate bill will pass this year," a spokesman for the senator said. "I believe it is highly unlikely the Senate will pass a climate bill this year...it will be especially hard given the fragile state of the economy," said fellow Republican George Voinovich of Ohio.

Dynamic still could change
The sober assessment comes despite the latest effort to forge consensus by a trio of senators across the spectrum--Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham, and independent Joseph Lieberman--and after President Barack Obama offered additional measures to entice Republicans, including federal loan guarantees to help pay for more power plants.

After months of work, the senators still haven't produced a bill they think can win broad support, although they say one will be unveiled soon. The House of Representatives passed a bill that included a contentious cap-and-trade mechanism last June, surprising many who thought a consensus could not be reached.

Kerry, admitting he was bucking "conventional wisdom," said that a compromise bill "can change the debate."

Lugar, Voinovich, and Levin were among a dozen of the 16 senators surveyed who see little hope for legislation to cap and then slowly cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming and require power plants, oil refineries, and other sectors of the economy to have pollution permits.

The Senate's rules that usually require 60 votes to pass controversial legislation such as climate change also present a major hurdle.

However, while lawmakers see little hope of the Senate approving a climate change bill this year, they are more optimistic about a stand-alone energy bill that would expand offshore drilling, support building more nuclear power plants, and require a portion of U.S. electricity supplies to be generated by renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. A Senate panel already has approved such a bill.

"It takes so many votes to get something through and I think there's more unity on energy than there is on climate change when it comes to this body," said Democrat Ben Nelson from Nebraska.

Lawmakers are responding not only to the political realities, but to their constituents, who are showing diminishing concern about global warming.

The proportion of people who believe global warming is probably a hoax more than doubled since 2008 to 16 percent of the American public, according to a survey released this week by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities.

Those who are most certain that global warming is happening and caused by humans has fallen to 10 percent from 18 percent.

"Gloomy unemployment numbers, public frustration with Washington, attacks on climate science and mobilized opposition to national climate legislation represent a 'perfect storm' of events that have diminished public concerns about global warming--even among the alarmed," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change.

Even long-time supporters of legislation to fight global warming, like Democrat Dianne Feinstein from California, appear to be throwing in the towel for this year.

"I do want a climate bill," said Feinstein. But when pressed further on whether the Senate would likely pass a bill this year, she admitted: "No, but we should."

Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Source: news.cnet.com