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wattwatt (a play on the words 'what' and 'Watt') is an independent community website set up by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a Geneva-based, non-governmental and not-for-profit organization, leader in electrotechnical standardization. IEC believes that the question of electrical energy efficiency is one that needs to be addressed and that everyone of us, as individuals, has a part to play.

Smaller scale distributed and renewable power projects will become the fastest growing segment of the energy industry. Due to the large number of relatively small projects many more people are becoming involved with project development who are not power industry professionals. HOMER Energy provides software, services, and an on-line community to this wider and more diverse group of people who will be making this vision a reality.

The paper discusses the use of a dual energy storage system based on batteries and supercapacitors in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). The battery has a large energy density, enabling an all-electric driving range of 100 km, while the supercapacitor has a large power density and provides peak power during acceleration and regenerative breaking. The paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of both storage systems and the specific requirements imposed by the hybrid drive train. Coupling such a HEV to the grid allows interaction between grid and HEV, providing the grid with a controllable load. Depending on the communication between the hybrid fleet and the grid, this load can be controlled by adjusting the electricity price in order to allow a higher penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind parks in the grid and if the communication allows the transmission system operator to reduce the load imposed on the grid by the hybrid fleet, the hybrid fleet can become part of the secondary frequency control reserve. In case of sudden demand or supply fluctuations, the hybrid fleet can assist in primary control of the grid. Due to the dual energy storage system the HEVs can also provide fast load tracking to keep the voltage in microgrids at the desired set point. An experimental setup with a battery, grid coupling and induction machine proves the feasibility of the concept.

Boston University's College of Engineering is launching a program, under a National Science Foundation grant, to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. Researchers expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create "Smart Lighting" that would be faster and more secure than current network technology.

On September 26, 2009, World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) will give citizens all over the world a possibility to define and communicate their positions on issues and questions central to the negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, starting two months later.

There is, however, a third way. In Denmark and Germany-world leaders in wind energy development-many commercial-scale wind turbines are installed as single units or in small clusters distributed across the countryside, or scattered around and sometimes within urban agglomerations. And many of these turbines are either owned by the farmers on whose land the turbine stands, or by local residents.

At the point where our research began we had seen a new theme of ‘community based localism’ in policy supporting a surge of new activity on the ground.  Very little research had been undertaken to explore the motives and rationales of those involved, to examine the ways in which policy and action at a local level were interconnecting or to understand the profile and pattern of outcomes that were being achieved. 

The latest effort comes not in some green hub like Portland, Oregon, but in the Persian Gulf, fuelled as much by oil wealth—and the need to find postpetroleum business models—as environmental zeal. Groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday for Masdar City, a nearly self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50,000 people rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabi’s international airport and intended as a hub for academic and corporate research on nonpolluting energy technologies.