Group items tagged

The paradigm shift to electric cars and to the "smart grid" in electricity distribution is happening.What is particularly interesting is the complementarity and potential convergence between the two innovations, if V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technology develops as promised. In this case, the batteries in parked cars could become distributed accumulators of surplus energy and feed it back into the grid. 

An introductory article on the radical innovation that is entering the field of energy distribution: the smart grid, that will use IT to optimize the balance between distributed production and demand.

IT is a peculiar technology, rather similar to electricity. Rather than being a sector on its own, it is becoming an enabling technology stimulating radical innovation for an ever broader range of industries. After telecoms, then media, and many other industries, it is now the turn of energy to be affected by "smart grid" technology. Spotting the next radical and disruptive inovation could be easy: just try finding an industry where IT has not yet created a lot of change.

A short summary of Jeremy Rifkin's new book. An interesting perspective that we might consider meta-paradigmatic. In other words, the position is that changes we are observing in a number of fields (i.e. distributed energy generation and smart grids, social networking, open source innovation, etc.) are symptoms of a more radical change at societal level, from individualistic self-interest to collective "shared interest",from the pursuit of wealth and property rights to a broader concept of "quality of life".