Imagine that your thermostat and appliances are so “smart” they can adjust to peak energy costs throughout the day and night to save you money — and help save the planet.
This kind of responsive technology is coming soon to California, thanks in part to Berkeley researchers who are studying how a “demand-response” approach will allow consumers to micromanage home-energy use.
“In California, when the demand goes high and you have to scramble for supply, it’s just bad,” says David Auslander, professor of mechanical engineering who studies this technology with Paul Wright, acting director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) , and others. “Scrambling is a code word for expensive and polluting.”
Because storing large quantities of energy is both expensive and impractical, a better plan is to give consumers information and control so that they can use less at peak hours — such as running the washing machine at 2 a.m. when rates are lowest.
Auslander recently led a study for the California Energy Commission about the programmable communicating thermostat that can be set to turn off or down automatically, depending on rates.
President Obama has designated stimulus funds to pay for the installation of 40 million “smart” meters that give detailed reports of energy use in a home. These meters will enable Google to launch PowerMeter, a program that lets consumers monitor home-energy consumption in real time. Google says consumers save 5 to 15 percent of their energy costs when they have access to information about consumption.
This shift in monitoring energy use — by utility companies and corporations — has some pondering privacy issues and wondering, will Google know if I left my bedroom light on?
Mobile Millennium — a collaboration between UC Berkeley, the California and U.S. Departments of Transportation, and corporate partners — uses volunteers’ cell phones to help monitor congestion on side roads as well as on major highways. Speed and position information from GPS-enabled cell phones is fused with data from traffic sensors and then broadcast back to the drivers’ phones. If 3,000 users shave 30 hours a year from their commute times, the project will save more than 70,000 gallons of fuel, says the research team, which includes both graduate and undergraduate students.
Berkeley graduate and undergrad students are teaming up with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientists to evaluate the market potential of the lab’s clean technology. Christy Martell, first-year Haas School of Business M.B.A. student and coleader of CleanTech-to-Market (C2M), and fellow students work with scientists such as Ramamoorthy Ramesh, who is experimenting with cutting-edge photovoltaic materials to make solar prices “dirt cheap.”
Says Martell, “Students are assessing economic costs, competitive technology, and efficiency levels needed to reach this goal.”
It’s a positive experience for both students and scientists, who are working to transform C2M into a credited course next year. “The program encourages professional and student participants to collaborate across science, engineering, law, and business programs — a diverse group united by an interest in clean tech,” says Martell. “While these projects last just one semester, they will hopefully lead to more impactful products reaching the marketplace.”
next section: Staying Informed
