As I have posted about before, the world is in a race to find clean, renewable energy. Coal plants emit too many tons of green house gases each year and nuclear energy is something this nation is torn over. Is it safe, is it not? My question is, why not harness the power of the solar system and earth to meet our energy needs? Solar and wind technology has taken off on a local scale, but is not yet wide spread.
An upstart venture, Greenbox Technology, is seeking a way to encourage homeowners and cities to replace outdated grids and replace them with new smart grids. These smart grids essentially act to eliminate waste. The green box is software a user downloads to their computer, which is then linked to their home energy meters, and can be tracked on-line. The great part about this is that it reduces both energy usage and cost. Oklahoma Gas and Electric is the first major city to implement this technology. Their reasons for doing so is that it will cut back on their costs and allow customers to save. It will also allow users to see the going rate throughout the entire day so they know when rates are highest and lowest so that they may be more cautious as to when they expend the most energy.
With many power plants reaching capacity, this technology has the ability to alleviate the problem. It allows users to see what their neighbor's usage numbers are and compare them to one another. If this smart grid were combined with renewable energies, the savings and benefits would be huge. Stress for customers, companies, and the earth would be greatly relieved. The drawback of course is that they are extremely expensive to install and in this down economy, you do not see companies willing to absorb upfront costs for future savings as many companies are in a tight cash situation. It is only a matter of time before the smart grid erupts, hopefully sooner rather than later. Until next time.....remember to reduce, reuse, recycle!
I'm surprised OG&E is the first to implement this. As my family is all in Oklahoma, I'll have to find out if they know about it and if they will participate!
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