Obama: Smart Electric Grids also equal Jobs
Not only is this smart and good for the economy, it's the right thing to do for our future generations. When it was mentioned that our electric grids would be upgraded with the Recovery and Reinvestment act (stimulus) money, I knew it would give our economy a boost as well as much needed improvements with our system.WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is giving a jolt to the futuristic "smart" electric grid, hoping to more quickly bring America's power transmission system into the digital age.
President Barack Obama, during a visit to a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Florida, is announcing Tuesday that he is making available $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the power grid. The projects include installing "smart" electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors...
The $3.4 billion in grants from the government's economic stimulus program will be matched by $4.7 billion in private investments, the officials said. The smallest grant will be $400,000 and the largest $200 million...
The push to essentially bring modern computer and communications technology to the electric grid has been under way for some time but has gained momentum with the prospect of billions of dollars in federal support.
Matt Rogers, the Energy Department official involved in the program, said the 100 projects were selected from 400 proposed...
"This will save or create tens of thousands of jobs,"
This is great too, that with a smart grid people can easily produce their own energy (e.g. solar) and sell it to the grid, or set up appliances to run when electricity's 'real time price" is low.
Here's a cool link giving more info and the players: http://earth2tech.com/2009/01/26/faq-smart-grid/
October 27, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink