Obama’s all about it.  GE advertised their hype during the Super Bowl.  The pending stimulus package may allocate $4.3 billion for smart grid projects.  The DOE has a web page about it.  But what the heck is it?

I’ve been asking myself that questing for a few months now without getting any satisfying answers.  And I think I should know!

According to the following article, one of the main components of the smart grid is just smart appliances that can be controlled remotely so that they don’t use power during peak load (e.g. the middle of a summer day).

Powering Up Smart Grid Technology excerpt:

A great deal of electrical energy in the U.S. is lost due to to inefficient generation and grid management. So-called smart grids allow consumers and utility companies to more closely monitor power grid activity and appliance power usage. It can also allow users to set appliances to run at a time of day when the cost of electricity dips below a certain point.

IBM and a number of other information technology firms are working with utilities to bring digital communications and control technology to electricity systems in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. This infusion of technology will lower operating costs while helping utilities avoid huge capital outlays for new generation plants and expand their ability to use other sources of energy such as wind and solar power.

The first step in implementing a smart grid is building an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). A key component of AMI is the smart meter, which is a digital meter capable of processing and reporting usage data to providers and households via two-way communication between meters and utility offices. Smart meters with the proper user interfaces can provide information to consumers about their power consumption. Households can then make decisions based on real-time household power consumption data to conserve energy and reduce their electricity bills.

The benefits enabled by smart grid initiatives are realized only when household electronics and appliances are able to communicate and alter operations according to signals from the end user or utility management systems. Smart appliance/device features:

• automatic operation according to preset rate thresholds, i.e., off-peak or cheapest time-of-day
• remote user access to stop/start devices if schedules change
• per-device breakdown of energy consumption

That sounds great, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with modernizing the grid itself, just modernizing electrical appliances.

Actually, there is a lot more to it that you can read about here.

Here are a couple pictures from the trip, follow the link for a few more:

From Cahaba River Canoe Trip – Feb. ‘09

From Cahaba River Canoe Trip – Feb. ‘09

Among them are…

Designing the Seiko Spring Drive watch (you can get one for $3500 here)

In March 2005 Seiko finally unveiled the Spring Drive at an international watch and jewelry show in Switzerland. Selling for something over $3000, each timepiece is hand-assembled by a master artisan. Seiko says it is the most accurate mechanical chronograph on the market, losing no more than 1 second per day.

One of the things that Koike likes most about working on the Spring Drive watches, he says, is that he knows their owners will appreciate them. Noting that the Japanese have a reputation for being extremely punctual, Koike says, “this watch will make them feel safe and secure.” You can’t really ask more of a wristwatch.

Building an electric dirt bike

Until a year ago, Kluge led a double life. Monday through Friday, he was a mild-mannered Silicon Valley engineer. On weekends, he was a top motorcycle track racer, competing in events all over the United States. Now, as Zero Motorcycle’s director of engineering, he has managed to merge his passion with his profession.

Thanks to the IEEE The Risk Factor blog for this story:

Google showed off a new version of Google Earth that will allow users to explore the oceans of the world.

According to a story in the San Jose Mercury News, “The program combines satellite images, ocean photography and scientific data to create interactive 3-D images of the oceans’ floors … Users can study global sea temperature changes and track migrating whales.”

Google used data from the National Geographic, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the US Navy, Scripps Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, among others to generate the maps.

The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts. Google hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and to keep track of loved ones.

Yes we can: Schools, streets renamed for Barack Obama

Good morning, Barack Obama Elementary School!” That is what children attending the former Ludlum Elementary in Hempstead, New York have been hearing ever since the local school district board voted unanimously to change the name to honor the United States’ first black president.Barack Obama took office barely 10 days ago, but already schools and streets are being renamed. In the Hempstead case they didn’t even wait until Inauguration Day, re-christening the school back in November — the first in the nation to do so.

…

Does Mack expect more re-namings early in the administration? “Oh yes, there’ll be more, that wouldn’t surprise me.”

…

But while young students spurring community change is impressive, Syracuse’s Thompson eyes a worrying trend.

“The idea of naming a school after a political leader still in office should always make us nervous,” he said.

“It implies the … endorsement of that political leader” in an institution that is “presumably a place where children are educated and learn to think for themselves.”

The phrase my title alludes to (”The beatings will continue until morale improves“) has been used to illustrate the economic myth that just won’t die – the “broken window fallacy.”  The broken window fallacy says that some destruction is benefits a local economy because it results in work to repair what was destroyed.  Such as paying someone to fix a broken window.  To illustrate the fallacy of that idea, do you think it would be a good idea if the government randomly bulldozed houses so that people would invest in new ones?  The point is that people are simply redirecting their funds to fix the window or rebuild the house instead of spending that money on some other good or service that they would rather have if they didn’t have to fix the broken window.

Anyway, back to the re-namings.

To help stimulate my personal economy, I’m renaming Baxter, my dog,  Barackster in honor of Obama (how about Barackster Odogma?).

According to this AP story

Alabama Power Co. is exploring the option of making electricity solely by burning wood or other “biomass.”
Under a study to be completed in the second half of this year, the state’s top power provider is looking into converting a coal-fired generating unit at one of its facilities.

Among the sites under consideration is Barry Steam Plant in north Mobile County.

The amount of power involved would be 70 to 80 megawatts, according to a description of the project recently released by the city of Mobile. That’s a fraction of the company’s total output but still enough to light thousands of homes.

…

“I think it’s more of a pre-emptive effort,” Adam Snyder, executive director of Conservation Alabama, said of the Alabama Power study, adding that he considers it “a great move.”
Along the same lines, Georgia Power Co., another affiliate of Atlanta-based Southern Company, is seeking regulators’ permission to convert a small coal-fired plant to biomass, said Anne Blair of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, another advocacy group headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn.

…

“I think they are doing a good job in terms of anticipating what is likely to be coming down the pipeline at the federal level and simply diversifying their energy mix,” said Blair, who is the alliance’s program manager for diesel and biofuels.

One of the new items of the Energy & Environment Agenda of the Obama administration is to “Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.”  It will be interesting how utilities without access to abundant wind or solar resources comply with new energy regulations.

More on biomass at WikiPedia.

More on biomass at Alabama Power’s Biomass Energy page.

My faves:

1. “I can see Russia from my house!” — Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the TV comedy show “Saturday Night Live,” broadcast Sept. 13.

4. “It’s not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number.” — a Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout, quoted on Forbes.com Sept. 23.

7. “Maybe 100.” — McCain, discussing in a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, how many years U.S. troops could remain in Iraq, Jan. 3.

As compiled by the Yale Book of Quotations.

An aide to Oberstar said he had no hand in the mayors’ wish list, which includes a number of road and highway projects in his district, including $5 million to paint Duluth’s iconic Aerial Lift Bridge. Also tucked in are $2 million for a lake-walk extension at Beacon Point and $6 million for snowmaking and maintenance facilities at Spirit Mountain.

The maps of 2008:  spontaneous mapping of live events like the terrorists attacks in Mumbai, the first Moon walk overlaid on a soccer field, and of course the presidential election result maps.

July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon:

Map of the 2008 presidential election results by county:

Map of the 2008 presidential election results by county where the county size is based on population, highlighting the voting weight of populated vs. rural areas:

See more maps from Mr. Newman, a physicist at the University of Michigan.   Make your own on this NYT page.

SNL’s Fred Armisen demonstrates their “Megapixel Giant Touchmap” (MegaMap), a parody of CNN’s ridiculous-yet-awesome “Magic Wall” (”Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall”).  The MegaMap demo starts about 1:30 into the video.

Via The Map Room