Business Week says Germany’s building the power grid of the future. One of humanity’s boldest visions:
The electricity age is imminent in six German regions: The technology of the future for smart energy management is going to be developed and tested, under the label E-Energy, in several cities. A number of projects will kick into high gear this month. Tens of thousands of homes and hundreds of companies are expected to participate in the field tests.
Testing ‘virtual power stations’ in homes:
Residents of the cities of Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, where a government pilot E-Energy project is being tested, are already experiencing what it is like to be part a smart grid. There, 200 homes and companies have been equipped with photovoltaic systems and CHPs or fuel cells.
This model transforms the consumer into a producer who can make some money in the energy market. They are also testing a pricing model in which electricity rates depend on supply and demand. If the amount of available energy goes down, the rates go up correspondingly. Users can monitor the system on an Internet portal and generate energy whenever the price peaks, thereby also stabilizing the overall supply.
RELATED: I was on the Washington Mall last week where the Department of Energy sponsored Solar Decathlon, an international student competition to build a modern home powered only by solar energy, was underway. Twenty colleges participated. Team Germany won, beating out California and Illinois.