The "smart" grid powered by renewable energy sources is likely to be fundamentally different from the current electricity system in more ways than one. Some say it won't be as large-scale as it is now. That's not what utility companies want to hear.
This piece looks at how de-concentrated energy production can work at the neighborhood scale, and why old school utility companies are fighting the move.
"The evidence is growing that privately owned, consumer-driven, small-scale, geographically distributed renewables could deliver a 100% green-energy future faster and cheaper than big power projects alone. Companies like GE and IBM are talking in terms of up to half of American homes generating their own electricity, renewably, within a decade. But distributed power -- call it the "microgrid" -- poses an existential threat to the business model the utilities have happily depended on for more than a century. No wonder so many of them are fighting the microgrid every step of the way."
FULL STORY: Why the Microgrid Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research