North Carolina State University recently received a grant from NSF (the National Science Foundation) for the National Research Center for Future Renewable Energy Delivery Management Systems they want to develop, dubbed "Internet for energy."

 

The $18.5 million (about 13.5 million Euros) invested by NSF will provide a good start for the university and its other over 60 partner companies. Although the center begins research soon, it won't open its doors to the public until 2 years from now.

 

The technology they will develop is said to replace the outdated power grid of the US with a smarter one, able to store and distribute the energy obtained via solar panels, water or wind farms. One of the brightest features of the project allows for public involvement, as anybody capable of harvesting energy can sell it back to the power companies.

 

The revolution that this research will generate covers so many fields that it would take dozens of articles to explain. For starters, the most obvious results would have to be the accelerating development of energy storage and transmission devices, energy costs, house appliances... and look at my imagination growing wings. OK, one more, though: imagine cars fueled like trolleybuses and what that would mean for the oil industry.

 

In the meantime, some other researchers are focusing on sources of alternative energy. It may seem hard to believe, but Ameresco is a Massachusetts company that will obtain natural gas from the methane that comes from "biosolids" (human dejections). The main water system operator of San Antonio, the city that will benefit from this technology, Steve Clouse, explains that "the private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market." If there’s a way to obtain natural gas from the most unexpected materials, why wouldn't this be possible for energy as well?