Study focuses on electric cars’ effect on power grid (video)
AUSTIN, TX (KTRK) — Electric cars could be the wave of the future, but as they hit the roads, they have to get their charges. And that means they’ll pull power from the state’s power grid. Researchers in Austin are working to figure out what kind of strain that would put on energy resources, and [...] Read More »
Austin community participates in energy-saving study (video)
"We're working with these companies and real customers to find out what it is that people like enough that they'll go spend their own dollars buying," McCracken said. Read More »
Pecan Street Inc. and New $1.5 Million Lab Give Students Hands-On Research Experience
"There is no other university in the nation where students and professors are working this directly ... on developing and testing real-world applications at the intersection of electricity systems, big data and consumer technologies." – Brewster McCracken, Executive Director, Pecan Street Inc. Read More »
A Few Smart Ideas to Clean Up and Re-energize Cities
One area where much innovation is needed in urban environments is energy. The Pecan Street project in Austin, Texas is becoming a living laboratory of sustainability and energy efficiency. Read More »
With energy efficient neighborhood, students can do real-world research
The Mueller neighborhood demonstration project, an urban neighborhood built on the old Mueller airport site where researchers with Pecan Street Inc. test green energy products, now has 210 homes that use solar panels and will soon have 100 electric cars within a one mile radius, McCracken said. “One hundred electric cars within a mile is the densest population of electric cars in the U.S,” McCracken said. “Usually five within one mile is considered a lot, so this is huge.” Read More »
Pecan Street’s aim: Create path for consumers into smart grid’s future
As a lab, Pecan Street wants to be where the New Energy Economy is tested and verified before it goes to market. By extension, McCracken expects many of the innovators to base their companies here. Read More »
Red State, Green City: How Austin Has Become America’s Clean-Tech Hub
Nowhere is that clearer than in the Pecan Street project, a pioneering smart-grid research and demonstration program based in Austin's historic Mueller neighborhood. Pecan Street is a collaboration between Austin Energy, the Environmental Defense Fund, the city of Austin and the university, with much of its financing provided by the 2009 federal stimulus bill. The study is detailing energy and water use at the residential level, gathering data that most utilities barely have a handle on. Read More »
Pecan Street featured on EnergyNOW (Video)
The smart grid conjures up images of controlling home energy use with iPhones and utilities communicating with customers in real time like never before. But across most of the country, the smart grid is more fantasy than reality – except in the Lone Star State. Correspondent Josh Zepps reports from Austin, Texas on the Pecan [...] Read More »
Texas is pushing ahead with ambitious wind and solar renewable energy projects
By John Moylan Business correspondent, BBC News, Texas Welcome to Texas, the lone star state. People here use more energy than anywhere else in the United States. In fact, since oil started flowing here more than a century ago, energy has been at the very heart of the state’s economy. And oil remains key to [...] Read More »
Smart grid winners, losers (and fence-sitters) 2011
By SGN Staff It wouldn’t be the end of another year without a look back — and that’s what our annual list of smart grid winners, losers and fence sitters is all about. Take a look, and then use the comment form to agree, disagree or add your own suggestions. And our smart grid winners [...] Read More »