Feb 13 2009

The Green Seen

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Google is moving into the "smart grid" business with a free Web tool for consumers to control energy consumption in homes and businesses. The Google PowerMeter will tap into data on high-tech electric meters and other devices to manage energy use. Google, however, will need some help from other companies to build data equipment. "We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions," said Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a Google program manager.
• The British government proposed a "Heat and Energy Saving" strategy calling for all homes in the UK to have near-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Beginning in 2012, households could apply for loans and cash to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient and reduce power and gas bills. The government, however, did not provide details on program costs and who would provide the loans. Britain recently passed a law requiring an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels.
• Paris' successful bicycle-sharing program has been hit by theft and vandalism with more than half of the 15,000 bikes stolen. Advertising company JCDecaux, which runs the share program, says it can't afford to keep it going. The French city Lyon has a bike share program but it hasn't had the same problems. San Francisco, London, Singapore and Montreal are considering bike shares.

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