Kelly O’Connell, ERS, for Zondits Zondits recently had the opportunity to speak with Matt Kromer, the Director of the Grid Integration Group and Co-Principal Investigator of the SHINES and SunDial project at Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE. Fraunhofer CSE is an applied research and development laboratory dedicated to building tomorrow’s energy future today. … Read more
Key Considerations for Installing Solar Mark D’Antonio, ERS, for Zondits Last month we embarked on a multi-part series about solar photovoltaics (PV) and started with a discussion of five residential systems installed by ERS engineers in their homes. Several different selections were made related to system specifics as well as with economic approaches. The systems … Read more
Manuel A. Fontan, ERS, for Zondits Solar photovoltaic (PV) power is understandably a hot topic in Massachusetts. This kind of energy has a favorable market outlook, along with other renewable sources and efficiency measures, as cities look toward smarter and cleaner power and in many cases compliance with optimistic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards such … Read more
California accelerates energy storage deployment with new legislation Energy Storage News, September 28, 2016 California state legislature and governor Jerry Brown have signed into law four key new energy bills that are set to accelerate energy storage deployment in the Golden State. Bill AB 1637 follows up on the previous victory that storage experienced with recent Self … Read more
Jim Paull for Zondits More money has been pumped into copper indium galium di-selenide (CIGS) solar cells than any other photovoltaic (PV) technology. Less than a decade ago, CIGS was thought to be the heir to the future of PV: inexpensive materials only nanometers thick, deposited on glass or stainless steel foil. The “roll-to-roll” notion … Read more
Jesse Remillard, ERS, for Zondits In a small, coastal Maine town near the border of Canada, a group called the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) has been testing undersea turbines to generate power from the large tidal flows characteristic of the area. The units, which resemble vertical wind turbines, are undergoing testing to further refine … Read more
Jesse Remillard, ERS, for Zondits A startup company, Quidnet Energy, founded by Aaron Mandell and Howard Schmidt, has the potential to drastically lower the cost of energy storage. The pilot project implemented in 2015 uses excess electricity to pump large volumes of water into an abandoned natural gas well in Texas at high pressures. When … Read more
Gita Subramony, ERS, for Zondits CityLab takes a look at Hoboken New Jersey’s plans to develop its own back-up power supply. In 2012, Hoboken was one of the many communities devastated by Superstorm Sandy. Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from New York City, is a low-lying urban community, and it was almost completely underwater … Read more
Lisa Markowski, ERS, for Zondits Can beer make things clearer? It’s highly possible, although not necessarily through its consumption. Thinking about how microbreweries operate compared to large, national breweries can give the non-engineer a better understanding of the functions and goals of the modern grid. Writer/engineer/EnerNex consultant Sean Morash understands that “normal people” might not … Read more
Mathew Gard, ERS, for Zondits Off the coast of Block Island, 10 miles south of Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ocean, five gigantic wind turbines mark the beginning of offshore wind power in the U.S. The five turbines that will make up the Block Island wind farm are each capable of producing 6 megawatts (MW) … Read more