This week, Microsoft Hohm broke out of its packaging, prompting musings on our part about how Hohm differs from its Home Energy Saver beginnings. Some wondered whether utilities have what it takes to offer real-time feedback to consumers, a service we think is key to helping consumers effectively monitor and reduce electricity usage, and new LEED standards sparked a healthy debate.
Advice to curtail hopes about smart meters and linked technologies came from several corners, including an ARC Advisory Group report that smart meters will not see widespread growth until 2013. Amidst the hopes for increased accessibility of electricity monitoring data as a result of Smart Meters and software designed to deliver that data to utilities and consumers, Gigaom raised concerns that utilities may be technologically and culturally slow to adapt to broadband distribution of electricity data, meaning that consumers may not be able to get useful information in real-time, and may have to wait more than 24 hours to see how their households are using electricity.
That said, if utilities do offer demand-response alternatives to consumers, GE appliances may be primed to take advantage of them. New technology in GE appliances provided by Tendril and Zigbee may allow a clothes drier to temporarily switch off the gas heat in exchange for a consumer discount, and consumers to control their appliances with a cell phone. As CNET notes, however, the technology requires full cooperation from utilities, some of which have been reluctant to help consumers use less power.
World leaders gathered at last week's G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy called for increased investment in low-carbon energy supply and energy efficiency, a call that the International Energy Agency described as "timely and urgent."
And in a bid to green up its act and produce a little spare energy, a Burger King franchise in New Jersey announced that it is going clean and green by attempting to harness the power of speed bumps in its drive-thru. Now if only that captured kinetic energy could help you wear off the imprint of that beefy burger....
