Can Microgrids Eliminate Energy Poverty?
Christine Hertzog, Managing Director, Smart Grid Library |We take electricity for granted. In the USA and other developed nations, we are wired up with electricity that is readily available. Blackouts are infrequent, notwithstanding causes based in natural disasters or human error. But for the 1.4 billion humans who have no access to electricity, every day is a blackout. Another billion have unreliable access to electricity. That is energy poverty.
Consider life for those 2.4 billion people living in energy poverty. It limits the amount of time they spend in work or education to daylight hours. It limits connections to the outside world to communications equipment operating on battery power. They can't rely on refrigeration systems to keep food safe or water purification systems to ensure potable drinking water. They suffer from health problems which cannot be addressed with any medical devices that require electricity or refrigeration.
Reliable electricity has profoundly positive implications to developing economies. But existing ways of planning, building, and delivering electricity - defined by centralized generation, transmission, and distribution systems, are cost-prohibitive and time-consuming to deploy. What is needed is an innovative Smart Grid solution to eliminate energy poverty for one third of the world's inhabitants.
I recently spoke with Terry Mohn, Founder of General MicroGrids, Inc., a company that specializes in sustainable energy solutions. For him, the answer is yes, microgrids will become the prevalent energy delivery solution to eliminate energy poverty. He is putting his expertise to work as Co-Chair of the United Nations Foundation's MicroGrid Work Group with the mission to leverage industry experience to achieve this objective.
The UNF Project Underway
The United Nations (UN) recently organized an effort through the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change to commit UN member countries to address energy poverty. The effort is led by UN-Energy, a collaboration of 20 UN agencies, as the UN Campaign on Sustainable Energy For All. It has three main objectives to meet by 2030: 1) Achieve universal access to modern energy services; 2) Improve global energy intensity by 40 percent; and 3) Produce at least 30 percent of the world's energy from renewable sources.
The UN Foundation (UNF) plays a key supporting role to drive concrete actions on energy access at the national level. The UNF has oversight of global awareness and education campaigns and fosters private-sector engagements. The Work Group that Terry co-chairs is building a practitioner network focused on addressing the barriers to achieving the project goals. According to Terry, "we need to bring together global stakeholders to develop a more integrated approach to energy access planning and execution than has previously been done. We intend to catalyze the scale-up of renewable and low-carbon technologies and spur the market toward universal energy access. It will focus in particular on the removal of barriers to the effective delivery of energy services by promoting the development of new technologies and innovative financial and business models. It will also identify and disseminate best practices and foster strategic partnerships to promote energy access."
The Work Group is reaching out to companies that have experiences in planning, building, and financing microgrids. The answer is yes, microgrids can help eliminate energy poverty. But there's more to this story, and the discussion about microgrid market opportunities, barriers, and ongoing projects continues in next week's blog and will also be explored in an upcoming Energy Collective webinar.
Here's a coda to my previous articles on data analytics - I'll be moderating a panel session on September 21 for Agrion in the San Francisco Bay Area. Focused on Distribution Automation (DA) and advanced communications, we'll discuss the role of analytics in DA and converged networks.
Leveraging a nexus in technology and cultural change: Cracking the code on energy management inside homes and businesses
Erin Falquier is an expert in clean energy and climate solutions, specializing in technology and market development, technical analysis, and policy strategy. She is a consultant to People Power. | June 28, 2011In a new white paper, People Power discusses four key factors that have created ideal market conditions for cloud-based energy services that can manage billions of connected energy-consuming devices and effectively engage consumers to reduce global energy consumption:
- Explosive growth of internet-connected devices, including electronics and appliances
- Clean energy: rollout of smart grid and increasing domestic and international interest by consumers and governments in saving energy and money
- Major OEMs shifting to add software services to their hardware devices
- Continuing expansion of consumer connectedness: social networks, online gaming, and comfort with mobile devices
In this white paper, People Power describes a novel, comprehensive energy solution that leverages these market conditions to successfully deliver energy management solutions inside homes and businesses. At its core, People Power proposes a suite of products that are marketed to OEMs and service providers for end-use by their household and business customers. Its products promise to engage consumers with insightful information and control using devices they are comfortable with and love, thereby accelerating the adoption of more efficient products and energy-reducing behavior change. Also, in a boundary-crossing value proposition, People Power's breadth of services, from remote device control to online gaming, offers auxiliary benefits ranging from building security to workplace teambuilding, thus also improving lifestyles and meeting business demands.
With the release of People Power 1.0, the company is launching a mobile energy app for consumers that operates on its cloud-based Energy Services Platform (ESP), releasing wireless gateway reference designs to OEMs, and launching the People Powered Partner Program, an eco-system of corporate partners that increases the reach of People Power's services into multiple domestic and international markets. In addition, People Power is integrating third-party energy monitoring devices into its services, its first examples of integration with different physical protocols on devices or appliances. These third-party devices bridge the building/utility interface to energy services in the cloud. Future releases will bring appliance level data to the cloud. This will enhance the insights, intelligence, and control that People Power can provide to users as well as provide visibility to manufacturers of appliances and devices, enabling them to diagnose or predict problems or make recommendations.
Download the white paper (PDF)Smart Grid Data Management - The Start of an Outsourcing Trend?
Christine Hertzog, Managing Director, Smart Grid Library is an energy consultant and author of the Smart Grid Dictionary |The United Nations Climate Change Conference is convening in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 to December 10 to discuss reduction strategies for global warming and funding for programs developing nations can put in place to mitigate the impacts of climate changes.
Can the Smart Grid solve climate change? No, but it can reduce the amounts of emissions that we will continue to pump into the atmosphere. Here are 6 examples of how the Smart Grid will reduce emissions:
- Smart Grid technologies enable integration of clean, renewable sources of energy into the electrical grid. Sources like solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, once deployed, have the additional benefits of using zero to low energy requirements to aid in the extraction or harvesting of these energy sources. Contrast that to the energy costs to extract, refine, and transport coal or oil, and the emissions equation for renewables looks even better.
- Smart Grid technologies make the electricity supply chain more energy-efficient. Superconducting materials will reduce losses incurred in transmitting electricity great distances. Distribution automation can further reduce energy waste by better matching supply to demand. At the consumption link of the chain, there are many Smart Grid technologies that improve electricity use in commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. Since the cleanest energy is the negawatt, any technologies that reduce the electricity load have a beneficial cumulative effect that can result in avoidance of new generation facilities. Continuous commissioning is a combination of hardware, software, and services that use sophisticated sensors and actuators to maintain buildings at their best energy performance levels while maintaining occupant comfort. Technology innovations go beyond the building envelopes and into the actual designs of appliances and consumer electronics to do more with less energy.
- Integrating generation into the distribution grid eliminates losses from long-distance transmission and puts the users much closer to the generation sources. CHP (combined heat and power) solutions convert what is typically waste heat from generation into useful heat, reducing the need to expend more energy. Using backup generation sources (aka BUGS) can also reduce the need for building additional peak power plants, although many BUGS units are diesel and would benefit from replacement to cleaner energy sources like natural gas.
- Electrification of transportation, particularly personal vehicles, will reduce our reliance on oil, which has tremendous energy costs in its extraction, transportation, and refinement – and then there are the environmental costs. Additionally, leveraging the energy stored within electric vehicles (EVs) can reduce the need for peaker plants during times of high demand.
- Energy storage time shifts generation, so electricity can be stored until it is needed. Energy storage technologies also increase the integration of small to large scale renewables into the grid. A significant amount of global R&D activity is focused on developing the most effective energy storage technologies.
- Energy management solutions for residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) applications build awareness of consumption, and a multitude of studies demonstrate that awareness can result in reductions of energy use from 5% to 20%. The cumulative effects of everyone throttling back on electricity are reflected in less need for additional power generation from any source. There are a number of solutions in the marketplace today, with the most interesting ones based on open source platforms and standards.
The Smart Grid won't cure our planet's climate ills, but it will certainly lessen the severity of them if we continue to aggressively invest, innovate, and adopt the myriad technologies that reduce our need for energy derived from the dirtiest carbon-emitting sources like coal and oil.
Loss Aversion and Energy Conservation - Can We Win for Losing?
Samantha Neufeld is a PhD candidate in the Social Psychology program at Arizona State University, focusing on the psychology of energy conservation, and is an active advisor to People Power. |Before we get to the fascinating psychological phenomenon that is loss aversion, let's talk about Behavioral Economics. It's a field that's growing like crazy, and in coming posts I will be tackling different behavioral economics principles, and how we can use them to motivate people to conserve energy.
Traditional economic theory says that people are rational and logical, and because of that, the decisions we make are calculated for our own best interest. In other words, given the opportunity, we will always maximize our own gains. In this perspective, humans are thought of as Homo Economicus.
But people are clearly not always rational. We make decisions when we're emotional, we have all kinds of biases, we are often generous and altruistic in ways that benefit others at a cost to ourselves. Behavioral economics incorporates psychological principles into traditional economics, and tries to understand in a predictable, systematic way when and why we don't always make the rational decision and do what's best for ourselves.
A fantastic example of a behavioral economic principle is loss aversion, or the general preference people have for avoiding losses. So, here you're looking at a graph.
On the x-axis is loss and gain, usually in terms of money. If you gain money, you shift to the positive side of the x-axis, and with a loss, you shift to the negative side. Then the Y-axis is "value", which you can think of as happiness. Picture yourself starting at the intersection of these axes, with your current level of happiness and your current amount of money. Now, think of yourself gaining $100, so moving right along the X axis, and therefore gaining some happiness and moving up the Y axis. This is represented by the pink dot on the upper right. Now conversely, think of yourself losing $100, and therefore losing happiness. This is represented by the dot on the lower left.
Traditional economics predicts that that $100 is worth an equal amount of happiness to you, whether you win it or lose it. If you gain $100 you go up 10 points on the happy scale, if you lose $100 you go down 10 points, and that's what's shown on the blue prediction line.
Well, it turns out that's not so much the case. Here we have the same graph, but instead of the prediction line in the last slide, we have the real results of experimental data, by the behavioral economics geniuses Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (cites below). Tons of studies have been conducted to get at this relationship between gain, loss, and happiness. And it turns out, gaining $100 may make us pretty happy, but LOSING $100 makes us REALLY, disproportionately upset. A loss gives us more displeasure than an equivalent gain gives us pleasure, and so it's the case that humans are loss averse - we want to avoid losses even more than we want to gain gains.
Knowing that led experimenters to predict that whether we frame a situation in terms of loss or gains will affect people's decisions. To test this, we often use what's called the Asian Disease Problem. It goes a little something like this:
Half of the participants are given the choices on the LEFT, which are framed in terms of gains. Note that these choices, Program A and Program B, have the same expected value, which is that on average, 200 people will be saved. But given these choices, about 3/4 of people, or 72%, choose the sure thing, to save 200 people. That's not really surprising, because people are generally risk averse.
The other half of the participants are given the choices on the RIGHT, which are framed in terms of losses. These choices, C and D, ALSO have the same expected value (200 people will be saved). But given these options, over 3/4 of the people chose the risk, rather than the sure thing. Given our risk aversion, this is interesting, no?
But the critical comparison is really Program A vs. Program C - the simple shift in phrasing, from "200 people will be saved" to "400 people will die", even though they mean the exact same thing in this context, made an incredible difference in the decision. People who saw the loss frame were much more willing to be risky, to gamble with lives, to avoid that loss.
This is important to know. It means that the way we frame the information we give to people makes a big difference in how they're going to respond to it.
So how should we take advantage of this for energy efficiency? Smart meters and in-home feedback displays are one clear possibility - rather than showing people their costs racking up, we can show them that, starting with a budget, their money is going down. SRP, my utility here in Arizona, has implemented a pre-paid card system that works with an in-home display to show how much money you have remaining, and it's actually stressful to see it get closer to zero (I've been there). Cycling through the displays, I found that piece of information to be more motivating than the other information on how much I'm spending per hour, how many killowatts I've used this month, and so on. And it may not just be me; SRP pre-paid customers tend to save ~$12/month on energy, compared to customers who receive a normal bill. These savings probably result from a combination of immediate feedback (see last post) and loss aversion.
Then there are the messages we use to encourage consumers to purchase energy saving products. Rather than saying, "Replacing all of your normal light bulbs with CFLs will save you $7/month," the message could be, "If you don't replace your light bulbs with CFLs, you're losing $7/month."
I'd love to get your ideas on how loss aversion can be used to encourage conservation. Such a powerful strategy can surely have important implications for reducing energy use.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1984). Choices, values, and frames. American Psychologist, 39(4), 341-350.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211(4481), 453-458.
Leafy Green Feedback
Samantha Neufeld is a PhD candidate in the Social Psychology program at Arizona State University, focusing on the psychology of energy conservation, and is an active advisor to People Power. |People these days are looking to conserve energy for a wide variety of reasons - financial, environmental, concern about dependence on foreign oil, generic anti-wastefulness, or (let's face it) just because it's what everyone else is doing. But it can be really hard for would-be conservers to make informed decisions on how to save if they don't know where their energy is being spent. That bill at the end of the month doesn't contain a whole lot of information, and that's a problem.
It all comes down to granularity, or the resolution of the information we receive about our use. A utility bill at the end of the month is very low-resolution, low-granularity - it's whole-home usage over the course of an entire month. We can't see which days we use more (weekends? weekdays?), which times we use more (probably evenings?), which appliances use more (TVs? Dryers? Refrigerators?). I dunno, do you?
Without this information, it's hard to know where to cut back, and psychology researchers have known this for a long time. Many studies have been conducted in which people are given more granular feedback on their energy use - daily, hourly, or even real-time - and oh, the savings, how they pile up. In a study by Petersen et al. at Oberlin college (2007), the authors set up an energy-saving competition among the dorms. All of the dorm residents had access to energy feedback (which was already an improvement for them, since dorm residents don't pay their energy bills, and so never see any information on energy use). Some of the residents were given their data on a weekly basis, while others could access their real-time energy use data online. The real shocker of this study, to me, was how much all of the dorms saved - even the low-resolution dorms showed a 31% drop in energy usage, particularly impressive because dorm residents have no control over their thermostats. But this saving shot up to an almost unbelievable 55% for the high-resolution dorms. These savings are on the high end, but in every study I'm aware of, the finding is the same: Feedback leads to conservation.
Clearly, there's a lot to this granularity thing. Can you imagine what it would be like if we could all see our own home's real-time energy use, or even better, see it at the level of an individual room or even appliance? When it comes to cleaning up our energy usage, the devil is in the details, and the better we can see him, the better we can exorcise him.
The most effective feedback systems should also make the information relevant to the user. Not all of us know what a kWh (kilowatt hour) is, or what it means to be using 50 of them instead of 40 of them. But if this feedback were in the form of dollars out of our pockets, or CO2 being released into the atmosphere, or money into the hands of foreign nations, we would probably be a little more personally motivated to do something to reduce it.
Enter the smart meter. All over the nation, utilities are replacing regular energy meters with "smart meters", which allow better communication between the home and utility, and provide information every hour (or even every 15 minutes, for some). If you have one, it's likely your utility's website will allow you to go online and see your energy use broken down by day or even more finely, rather than by month.
This is an embarrassing admission for someone who studies energy efficiency, but I just found out that the townhouse I've been renting for two years has a smart meter. It was upgraded at some point and I never knew, and it's opened a world of information. See, here in Arizona, energy bills notoriously double or triple during the summer because A/C use shoots up. But I just went online and saw that on days where the temperature goes up, my energy use goes down, which makes absolutely no sense...of course, it would be great to have more granular information and see if the energy use has anything to do with A/C, but I can't tell that based on the information given. On the other hand, I've learned that my roommates and I need to be much more careful to consider time of use, because on some days almost half of our energy use has been during on-peak hours. Yipes.
To find higher-resolution information about your own home's energy use, check and see if your home has a smart meter (you can either call the utility or check your monthly statement). If you don't have one, you can ask if and when they plan on installing them in your neighborhood, because chances are they may be soon. And if still not, you can look into purchasing a TED or a Kill-A-Watt to show even finer granularity.
I forget who, but someone suggested that an energy bill should look like a phone bill - device, times, amounts, cost. I couldn't agree more. If it did, no matter our personal motivation, we would all be much more able to make informed decisions to curb our energy use.
What's Next on the Grid (Healthcare Edition)?
Ozzie Diaz, VP Product Management, People Power Company |There is a lot of activity in the space these days, particularly in the buildout of the infrastructure necessary to get going on at the least the initial vision of the Smart Grid whereby utilities will monitor home and commercial building energy consumption to optimize the generation and distribution of energy during times less stressful on the same generation sources, distribution networks, and ultimately pocketbooks of those purchasing the energy. However what is beyond the infrastructure and what are truly new services that can overlay or be completely new experiences for the end users and monetization opportunities for the service providers, which may include the utilities but not be exclusive to them? I argue that these new services need to be thought of in terms of the target "consumers" of the services and new lifestyle attributes created from these services. As the first in the What's Next on the Grid series, this article will discuss at a high level how Healthcare is one of these many new services and lifestyle impacts that the Smart Grid++ will create.
What do Healthcare and the Smart Grid have in relation to each other, apart from the fact that the same end consumers of the Smart Grid services are all human beings (Ed.: machine-to-machine applications on the grid notwithstanding) that need to lead healthy lives? At first glance, pretty much nothing in common. However let's look at a few characteristics that the two have in common.
1. Both use wireless technologies. In Smart Grid, is implementing and are implementing several wireless technologies such as WiFi. In Healthcare, hospitals and clinics are implementing WiFi for voice and data communications (and other proprietary wireless) and the Healthcare vertical has been an early adopter of wireless technologies due to complexities with running wired infrastructure for connected devices.
2. Both are connecting their devices. Meters, appliances, thermostats and TVs connected to a network is the first step to monitoring their energy consumption. Similarly connecting X-ray machines, home dialysis machines, medicine carts, patient tracking badges and in-home heartrate monitors are the first steps to creating anywhere, anytime patient monitoring.
3. Both see mobile devices and technologies as game changers. Whether it is or other mobile Internet devices and displays, remote and on-the-go manageability is an absolute need for doctors, nurses, building managers, or utility operations personnel. We're seeing the traditional closed NOC center become more and more distributed as mobile becomes pervasive.
4. Both are seeing significant innovations in the cloud. This dimension is more of a When and not If it will happen. But also How it will happen. Scalability and reliability of the cloud has been proven time and time again. However both Smart Grid and Healthcare have requirements for privacy of consumer/patient information, massive data management of and of detailed data (real-time energy consumption data from dozens of devices in a home to large MRI and other diagnostic imaging data from radiology departments), and strict regulations of who can access this data.Rather than looking at each of the above dimensions individually and in a vacuum of minutiae, let's look at them from a couple of fictional usage scenarios centered around how they benefit the lifestyles and livelihoods of the users. Fictional only in that I've not heard they've been actually implemented but technically very feasible.
I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up
Babyboomers are the largest new segment of the population entering their "golden years" but with both financial capability and a desire for wellness not just visit their doctors when they catch a bug. Many are staying proactively healthy with exercise, activities and good dietary habits. Imagine their stationary bicycles and Stairmasters connected to a converged wellness management system that also gives them suggestions or implements automated rules that reduce their energy spending. The stationary bicycles send their physicians and dietitians real-time and historical information of how they're exercise program is going, their heartrate range from at-rest to peak performance, weight, etc. If the users also included some anaerobic cardio such as swimming in their programs, wouldn't it be nice if the pool heater and pool pump energy consumption were activated according to the people's schedules? If there were changes to the schedule, they can enter the new schedule via their mobile smartphones or simply via their locations the schedules can be altered.
Code Blue in Room 305
There are many critical systems within a hospital environment such as the intensive care wards, radiology departments, patient and asset tracking systems, access to medical records and so forth. Some, but not all, hospitals have backup generators to weather through power outages but the rise of renewables such as solar and other alternatives could make the hospital environment its own micro-grid with these various power source subsystems that can be tapped and utilized in optimal times and conditions. However a holistic view of all the critical systems WITH the available alternate power subsystems implemented in a Critical Intelligence and Rules service ensures that all of the patient care and hospital management systems are available at all times in the most efficient manner. The MRI machines draw a lot of power so they wouldn't necessarily be switched to a battery bank while the 900 MHz Asset HAN can easily operate on duty cycles conducive to drawing from the batteries during peak tariff periods.
Check On Grandma
Many of us having aging parents and grandparents who we'd like to be able to check on from time to time, given our very active lives with traveling, taking care of kids or running companies. In comes the mobile phone as the portal to many of these personal facets of our lives. I can see to ensure the temperature is comfy for Grandma in Miami because there happens to be a major cold chill sweeping through the area and she doesn't know how to work that new programmable thermostat the utility installed. At the same time I can see that she's up to date on her heart medication because she's been taking the pills at the same times every day (RFID on the pill container with an integrated alert) and her in-home heart check monitor is giving me a green indication stating all is well. I'm on vacation in Europe with the kids so I sleep much better knowing this. We'll give her a call tomorrow after the gondola ride.
Summary
There are no lack of opportunities where the Smart Grid is more than just a grid for distributing energy at the right time of day. The ultimate uptake by consumers will be in the many layered ways they perceive these services touch and improve their lives. Some parts will be slower than others but beyond the infrastructure, the services need to be developed in a very user and customer-centric manner if they are to make good business sense as well.
Can the Smart Grid Solve Climate Change?
Christine Hertzog, Managing Director, Smart Grid Library |The is convening in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 to December 10 to discuss reduction strategies for global warming and funding for programs developing nations can put in place to mitigate the impacts of climate changes.
Can the Smart Grid solve climate change? No, but it can reduce the amounts of emissions that we will continue to pump into the atmosphere. Here are 6 examples of how the Smart Grid will reduce emissions:
1. Smart Grid technologies enable integration of clean, renewable sources of energy into the electrical grid. Sources like solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, once deployed, have the additional benefits of using zero to low energy requirements to aid in the extraction or harvesting of these energy sources. Contrast that to the energy costs to extract, refine, and transport coal or oil, and the emissions equation for renewables looks even better.
2. Smart Grid technologies make the electricity supply chain more energy-efficient. Superconducting materials will reduce losses incurred in transmitting electricity great distances. Distribution automation can further reduce energy waste by better matching supply to demand. At the consumption link of the chain, there are many Smart Grid technologies that improve electricity use in commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. Since the cleanest energy is the negawatt, any technologies that reduce the electricity load have a beneficial cumulative effect that can result in avoidance of new generation facilities. Continuous commissioning is a combination of hardware, software, and services that use sophisticated sensors and actuators to maintain buildings at their best energy performance levels while maintaining occupant comfort. Technology innovations go beyond the building envelopes and into the actual designs of appliances and consumer electronics to do more with less energy.
3. Integrating generation into the distribution grid eliminates losses from long-distance transmission and puts the users much closer to the generation sources. CHP (combined heat and power) solutions convert what is typically waste heat from generation into useful heat, reducing the need to expend more energy. Using backup generation sources (aka BUGS) can also reduce the need for building additional peak power plants, although many BUGS units are diesel and would benefit from replacement to cleaner energy sources like natural gas.
4. Electrification of transportation, particularly personal vehicles, will reduce our reliance on oil, which has tremendous energy costs in its extraction, transportation, and refinement – and then there are the environmental costs. Additionally, leveraging the energy stored within electric vehicles (EVs) can reduce the need for peaker plants during times of high demand.
5. Energy storage time shifts generation, so electricity can be stored until it is needed. Energy storage technologies also increase the integration of small to large scale renewables into the grid. A significant amount of global R&D activity is focused on developing the most effective energy storage technologies.
6. Energy management solutions for residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) applications build awareness of consumption, and a multitude of studies demonstrate that awareness can result in reductions of energy use from 5% to 20%. The cumulative effects of everyone throttling back on electricity are reflected in less need for additional power generation from any source. There are a number of solutions in the marketplace today, with the most interesting ones based on open source platforms and standards.The Smart Grid won't cure our planet's climate ills, but it will certainly lessen the severity of them if we continue to aggressively invest, innovate, and adopt the myriad technologies that reduce our need for energy derived from the dirtiest carbon-emitting sources like coal and oil.
Japan's Forward Thinking Environmentalism
Kate Gerwe, Vice President Marketing, People Power |
I just returned from a 9 day trip to Japan, where I was struck by how forward thinking Japanese manufacturers are when it comes to sustainability. It may be part of the Japanese culture, with 120 million people living in a natural resource constrained area the size of California. But whatever it is, it's surely something we can learn from.
Take Ricoh, a global supplier of printers, copiers, digital cameras, managed document services, and more to the tune of $23 billion a year in revenue. Aside from the fact that they have the world's first zero energy billboard in Times Square
, powered by sixteen wind turbines and sixty-four solar panels, you still surprisingly do not hear much about their global leadership with their commitment to environmental practices. They have committed to reducing total lifecycle CO2 emissions by 30 percent of year 2000 levels by 2020, and a whopping 87.5 percent reduction by 2050. They have won numerous awards, and have had a Harvard Business School case study written on their commitment to sustainability. Additionally, it is rumored that their Japanese headquarters uses half of the national average in energy consumption.
And let's look at Panasonic, who recently announced that they intend to obtain 30 percent, or 1 trillion yen (about $12 billion) of its expected revenue from its energy systems business. In addition, they made a big splash at Ceatac - the CES of Japan - with a number of very cool, futuristic energy saving devices. (Michael Kanellos has a great video here. They even have a zero energy Eco House in Tokyo, open to the public, thoughtfully proposing a lifestyle with virtually zero CO2 emissions throughout the entire home.
Hitachi is also getting in the game. They have announced a zero-energy community project , in northern Japan, in conjunction with Panasonic Electric Works, Toyota, and Japan Wind Development, where all energy generated for the small community will come from renewable resources.
All of these innovative manufacturers need a way to make visible the energy efficiency of their products, and enable further efficiency by offering real time, intelligent monitoring, control, and analytics in the cloud. That is where People Power comes in with our open Energy Services Platform, and open source IPv6 embedded wireless communication technology.
Here in the US, the center of innovation, we also have companies displaying leadership in sustainability -- including GE, Siemens, and others -- that are committed to developing new, innovative, green solutions. But it's encouraging to see the large companies in Japan take their commitment to reducing CO2 emissions so seriously.
