Background

How to Enable the Energy Revolution

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This weekend, I read what may be the most important book yet for those transforming today's grid into the Intelligent Grid, and transforming today's buildings and the systems inside them into Smart Buildings. No, it is not Thomas Friedman's "Hot Flat and Crowded", although that work has set the table nicely for discussions of the importance and opportunity of this effort. It is not and of the chap books from the Department of Energy, or the IEEE, or EPRI. It is not one of the many books on environmental eschatology. Nor is it any of George Gilder's visionary history books that bring perspective to technology.

I recommend that anyone involved in these efforts read "The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It"...

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B2B2B2B

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Several precise correspondents disagreed with my characterization of the ideal interface on every energy widget as a single Business to Business B2B economic interface. Some argued for Business 2 Machine (B2M) and some argued for Machine to Machine (M2M). A few argued for P2B (Person to Business). I think they all make it too complex, and limit the opportunity for new business models. B2B is meant to liberate new markets, new market entrants, new trading models. Starting with today’s Automated Demand-Response (ADR) interfaces, we get more benefits as we move them from M2M to B2B. People want to be in charge of their own property, so a Business inside the building puts the occupant in control. A business inside the building can only express their willingness to participate with an offer or bid. As not all bids are winning
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Water & Power

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Water policy is a bit afield for me, but sometimes it is worthwhile to look at the spaces nearby to see better, what one works with every day.

Water is in always in the news here in the southeastern U.S. Winter rains have done little more than put the ongoing drought in a holding pattern, not getting any worse, but not yet getting any better.

The towns in the triangle are running low. Mandatory water restrictions are in effect across the Research Triangle. Mandatory restrictions do not seem to result in any actual reduction for most users. Neighborhoods in Durham are still arguing over whether their homeowner’s associations still...

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Safety Net for Zero Net Energy Buildings

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When thinking about Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings, the most important thing is how you get to net. Many have willfully (it seems to me) accepted the delusion that carbon credits will be a useful or perhaps even significant component of this net. Such people suffer from a failure of imagination. They do not imagine that there will be new technologies.

They have also fallen into the fallacy that tomorrow will be a straight line from today. Today you can buy carbon credits fairly easily. My favorite source is free carbon offsets.

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