Word: grid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Experts suggest that utility ratepayers could be on the hook for $50 billion or more to upgrade the electric-power grid. Meanwhile, the current annual Federal Government investment in solar-energy tax credits and research programs is less than $100 million. Solar power kept working when the grid went down. What is wrong with this picture? GLENN HAMER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SOLAR ENERGY INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION Washington...
...went out, and will tell one another that for a few minutes, they wondered whether terrorists had struck again.” The knowledge that the blackout was not the result of an attack spread quickly over radio waves and by word of mouth. Mismanagement of an antiquated power grid was a far less harrowing explanation...
Where economics lead, government policy often follows. The few consumers who do generate their own power--typically with green technologies like solar panels, windmills or hydroelectric turbines--usually use it only to supplement what they draw from the grid. Still, this can present a problem when the power they generate with their windmills or solar panels, combined with what they take from the local power plant, exceeds their needs. Historically, they would simply kick that extra juice back to the local power company, which would buy it back from them at far below market value. A new system has been...
...policy hope that it will boost energy independence, but not everyone thinks that's a good idea. Because so much of the American gross domestic product is involved in the coal, petroleum and nuclear industries, walking away from them would set off severe economic shock waves. "The grid is a $360 billion asset," says Clark Gellings, a vice president of the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute. "It's literally a national treasure." Gellings believes that decentralization will play some role in the energy industry of the future, but he thinks it will always be a minority player...
...bigger risk is a digital attack. Richard Clarke, former cyberspace security czar in the Bush Administration, thinks an attack on the electricity-generating system is more likely to come from computer hackers than bombers. "The power grid is controlled by software, so the question is, Is there a way you can get into the control system?" Clarke asks. "And, yeah, there...