80+ Startups Making Cities Smarter Across Traffic, Waste, Energy, Water Usage, And More

 

The Internet of Things is helping cities improve everything from traffic data, weather, and parking, to water usage and waste management.

The cost of sensors has more than halved in the 10 years to 2014, falling to an average of 60 cents per unit. Declining sensor cost is one of the main drivers of Internet of Things technology, and the proliferation of internet-connected devices in the built environment. Those sensors are allowing us to gather new data that was previously inaccessible, and one impact is the growth of companies with the potential to make our cities smarter and more efficient as a whole.

We used CB Insights data to segment the growing crop of companies that are working to build smart cities.

We define startups operating in the smart cities segment as those that are helping to connect services, utilities, and roads to the internet. These startups are providing data-driven services that help cities increase their efficiency in using resources and/or help increase public transit-related mobility for city consumers.

European power grid operators gear up for digital transformation

The next wave of digital innovation – and disruption – in the electricity sector will rely on artificial intelligence and Blockchain technology, according to the new boss of the European power grid operators association, ENTSO-E, who is drafting an IT roadmap for publication later this year.

Just two weeks after taking on his new role, Laurent Schmitt, the new secretary general of the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E), is already buzzing with new ideas and projects.

“We are at the beginning of the digital transformation,” the Frenchman told reporters on Wednesday (18 January), admitting “nobody knows” yet exactly where the digital revolution will take the electricity industry.

Brooklyn Microgrid project using blockchain technology

One of the first P2P energy exchange using blockchain technologies.

Brooklyn Microgrid Brings Community Microgrid To New York

Brooklyn is known as the Capital of Cool all over the world. Soon it may become cool enough to host New York City’s first energy marketplace and community microgrid.

Brooklyn Microgrid, a benefit corporation, conducted a pilot project to test the feasibility of a microgrid earlier this year. It is now enrolling residents in the Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhoods to become the microgrid’s second cohort.

The company’s microgrid uses TransActive Grid, a business logic software that enables exchange of energy between surplus producers and regular Consolidated Edison customers. The software uses blockchain, the underlying mechanism for digital currency Bitcoin, to ensure a decentralized workflow.

Scott Kessler, director of business development at Brooklyn Microgrid, told me that their aim is to show the feasibility of energy distribution and supply within a grid environment as opposed to simply implementing an energy credit system.

Brooklyn Microgrid enrolled six customers for their pilot, which was conducted in April of this year. The energy exchange amounted to roughly $20 per month. “We were looking for quality not quantity,” Kessler clarified, adding that the company wanted to create a real-time market dynamic by enabling citizen participation in an energy marketplace.

Forty customers have already signed up for their second cohort. The neighborhood has a good mix of demographics and buildings that is ideal for their project, Kessler said. For example, it has Park Slope has multimillion dollar homes, low-income housing, as well as middle class residences. The area towards Gowanus, which borders Park Slope, has low-income housing to small industrial buildings to large industrial installations.

In terms of PV installations, the neighborhood has 1.25 megawatts of installed capacity that is split between large systems, such as the one owned by Whole Foods in Gowanus, and middle class residences. The idea is to take surplus energy from producers to residences and organizations that are dependent on the grid for their energy needs. For example, the company is putting up solar panels at CHiPs, a soup kitchen and homeless shelter.

While the idea of local resiliency has made several residents in the neighborhood sign up for the initiative, it may take a while for them to decouple from the main grid. Kessler said a “strong economic rationale” does not exist currently to introduce battery storage into their grid. “It is more of a policy issue,” he said and explained that the structure of electronic markets, which are based on standard pricing, is a problem for battery storage-run grids.

New York City itself is racing to develop microgrids after its experience during Hurricane Sandy, when the entire Lower Manhattan area suffered a prolonged blackout. Earlier this year, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) established the NY Prize, which offers $40 million for local energy solutions.

via EnergyCentral | Rakesh Sharma

The new Peer2Peer Energy revolution at Gridedge

Description of the future Smart Grid with large penetration of intermittent renewable energy. Including the blockchain technologies.

Although considered as marginal when it started 15 years ago, Renewable integration has significantly accelerated over the past few years setting new world record in the grid capability to absorbed renewable intermittency. The recent acceleration has primarily been related to the rapid decline of distributed renewable costs, bringing renewables at grid parity in countries having favorable weather conditions.

via Laurent Schmitt LinkedIn

What LEGO Bricks Can Teach Us About Grid Modernization & Microgrid stepped approaches

An agile Lego building approach applied to the changing energy world, namely to the utilities.

In the world of LEGO, there are people known as Master Builders: folks who can take a random pile of bricks and parts and turn it into a unique construction. As utility operators face daunting challenges, such as upgrading their grids to better integrate renewable energy, there’s a lot they can learn from these Master Builders.

via GE Power Conversion

Microgrids and Distributed Energy in Obama’s Final Energy Blueprint

Let’s see what Trump is doing in energy policy…

It’s unclear what’s ahead for federal policy on microgrids and distributed energy with the changing of the guard in Washington, D.C. But the Obama administration pushed the resources in its final energy blueprint issued last week.

“Transforming the Nation’s Electricity System,” the second installment of the Department of Energy’s Quadrennial Energy Review looks at the rapid technology overhaul on the grid and the challenges that result.

via Microgrids and Distributed Energy in Obama’s Final Energy Blueprint | Microgrid knowledge