Today, President Obama announced the award winners of $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for the modernization of our nation's grid. The grants will support 100 projects taken up predominantly by utility companies in 42 states and the District of Columbia. The awards are not guaranteed done deals. Each grant winner must do a bit more work to substantiate the merits of their initial proposal requests. And, while there are definitely some losers in the allocation of grant money, collectively, all stakeholder bodies should be looking at this announcement as a positive step forward and throwing up a high five.
The Department of Energy has assembled some useful documents that detail exactly where the money is going and what it should cover:
Grant awards by category, click here.
Grant awards by by state, click here.
More interesting is the 'Smart Grid Leading Players' diagram produced by Greentech Media Research. It is not difficult to notice that every major technology company is looking to participate in this movement. The Smart Grid represents a financially material opportunity for nearly every supplier, provided that they can prove their worth.
Over the next several years, the grants combined with matching private investment will go towards outfitting more than 40 million homes and businesses with smart meters, over 1 million in-home displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, and 175,000 other energy management devices that will allow Smart Grid Citizens to reduce their energy usage. The funding will also help expand the market for "smart appliances", home energy conservation retrofits, and allow us to get more of our energy from renewable sources.
With all this good news, it's easy to overlook the fundamental question: Does the potential environmental and consumer benefit from smart grid investments exceed the costs?
Time to get back to work...
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