Tag: Interview
The POWER Interview: Spotlight on the Solar Wave
The post The POWER Interview: Spotlight on the Solar Wave appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Growth in the solar power sector is coming from many angles, with utilities building ever-larger solar arrays, and more homeowners and building owners putting panels on their rooftops. Many utilities and other companies also are expanding offerings of community solar, a way for electricity customers to get the benefits of solar power without having to install a rooftop system.
BlueWave Solar, a Boston, Massachusetts-based company founded in 2010, offers community solar sales and services along with solar financing and project development. What began as a company “that started … with a couple guys driving around in an old station wagon touting the benefits of solar to anyone who would listen,” according to the BlueWave website, today has projects scattered across the U.S. Northeast.
The company works with cities and a variety of energy companies, and recently announced it has secured more than 1 GW of future solar and storage projects across eight states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.…
The POWER Interview: A Marketplace for Energy Collaboration
The post The POWER Interview: A Marketplace for Energy Collaboration appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The digitization of power generation is among the technology advancements transforming the way electricity is produced and distributed. Utilities have always sought ways to improve the efficiency of their operations, along with lowering the cost of maintenance while streamlining asset management.
The digital transformation has brought numerous challenges, as utilities seek to upgrade their legacy thermal generation while at the same time integrating renewable energy resources into their fleets. The advent of decentralized, distributed power generation also has brought digitization to the forefront, particularly as companies work to improve the quality of the data they’re gathering from their power plants, and figure out how to access and use an ever-larger quantity of information about how their assets are operating.
Awesense, a Vancouver, British Columbia technology group, is among the companies working to help power generators integrate digitization into their operations. The company’s Digital Energy Platform, “a digital twin-based energy analytics platform that allows utilities to scale at the same pace as the rapidly changing technology landscape of the energy grid,” is designed to support energy providers at a time when changing business models have become a constant in the industry.…
The POWER Interview: AI, Big Data, and Efficiency
The post The POWER Interview: AI, Big Data, and Efficiency appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the power generation sector has a goal of making electricity production both more efficient, and secure. Developing ways to more quickly analyze ever-larger amounts of data is driving innovation among those people responsible for the operation of power plants and generation equipment.
Many companies are involved in the research and development of technologies to support AI and ML. Beyond Limits, a California company launched in 2014, works in several markets, from energy—including the power generation and oil and gas exploration sectors—to manufacturing and industrial, as well as healthcare. The company says, “Our mission is to create automated solutions with human-like powers of reasoning that amplify the talents and capabilities of people. We specialize in complex challenges in extreme environments.”
Stephen Kwan, the company’s director of product management for Power Generation/Grid Management, provided POWER with his insight into AI and ML as it applies to the electricity sector, with a look at what the future holds as the power generation landscape continues to change.…
The POWER Interview: Climate Change and Renewable Energy in 2021
The post The POWER Interview: Climate Change and Renewable Energy in 2021 appeared first on POWER Magazine.
With the start of a new year comes new year resolutions, new campaigns, new administrations, new policy goals, and new initiatives. To kick off 2021, POWER talked with Jens Wolf, vice president and general manager of Europe at Enviva, a renewable energy company and the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets.
Wolf has more than 20 years of experience working across the value chain within the power, heat, and biomass industries, and has expertise in renewable energy, sustainability, and new market development. From his office in the UK, he works with customers, regulators, policy-makers and external stakeholders to grow his company’s market and customer footprint, and expand the use of its sustainable wood biomass product across Europe.
Wolf previously was the commercial director for Drax, where he was responsible for the development, logistics, trading, and sourcing of biomass on behalf of the company. Prior…
The POWER Interview: ‘Dispatchable Power Through Commercial Fusion’
The post The POWER Interview: ‘Dispatchable Power Through Commercial Fusion’ appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The goal of economic power generation from fusion has been elusive, but that hasn’t deterred researchers from exploring ways to develop the technology in a way that would support commercial electricity production.
POWER magazine has covered the evolution of fusion research and development for many years, and nuclear experts now think we could be just years—not decades—away from commercial applications.
Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies, is among those working to commercialize fusion. His California-based company, founded in 1998, has explored many concepts related to fusion; some of the company’s technical writings are available here.
Binderbauer recently answered questions from POWER about his company’s work and the challenges of developing a power management strategy to make fusion energy a commercial reality.
POWER: Increased investment into the research and development of fusion energy is driving a more realistic view of the technology as a viable option to provide abundant, reliable electricity.…