Recently both Microsoft and Google stood side by side at the GreenNet conference in San Francisco and were discussing their software programs that allow consumers to monitor their energy usage. Microsoft calls their program the Hohm, Google Powermeter. Both companies have begun to work with utility companies or energy companies to help users monitor and save on energy. In fact both companies have a program that involves using innovative technologies to make power consumption more affordable, and more efficient. Microsoft is even working with Ford to help them get the most out of their electric car engine technology. Which begs the question. Why wasn’t something like this done before? Why now?
To answer that let’s take a quick trip down history lane. First of all the internal combustion engine was invented by German engineers in the mid 1840′s. That was Daimler and Benz who both built a highly successful and practical gasoline-powered vehicles. (History actually records the invention as belonging to Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France who built the first automobile in 1769). Daimler and Benz made a practical and workable engine which is still in use today, 170 years later.
Now consider the transistor. Invented at the Bell Labs in New Jersey, in the late 1950′s. Some have said that the transistor was probably the greatest invention of the 20th century. You’ll not get any argument from me on that score. But look at those two inventions. One has not changed and it’s application has been the same all these years. The other has been at the forefront of every technical invention in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.
The Lenoir
So why did one not change and the other provide change almost constantly? Well if you are a cynic or a conspiracy buff, you might say that the big oil companies didn’t want the internal combustion engine to change because it would affect their bottom line. Nothing like that affected the transistor. Thousands of companies were free to use them in any way they could. One big result is obviously the PC.
Remember what Thomas Watson Jr said about computers? He was president of IBM and in the mid 50′s and he said that there would never be a need for more than three computers world wide. (Sounds like Bill Gates and the 640K memory limit.) But of course he was right if computers were the sizes of a two story house, which is what they were then, before the transistor changed all of that. So now we have modern technology which has been based on one mantra … smaller is better! Think Twitter; think iPhone, or iPad, or laptop. Thank transistors.
So getting back to cars, we know what the last few years have killed the automobile industry as we knew it. And there has been a lot of talk about hybrid technology or even hydrogen based cars or electric cars. So why didn’t these other technologies take off before? Well the main reason was technical, the technology to make and monitor the electric engine was not there. But maybe that is about to change.
GreenNet Technology Conference
The Networked Car
At GreenNet, the Internet was discussed as a way of making changes to our energy consumption. IT tools are appearing in the unlikeliest of places, like the vehicle. The next generation of electric cars may be fuel up from the power grid. Maybe even while driving. In the same way that you constantly receive electricity in your home while simultaneously you are using it for your home appliances. Up to now, the two biggest problems with electric vehiciles are that they can’t go as fast as gas powered cars, and that their range is limited to their batteries. But both could change. There may not be a need for batteries, and the car will be lighter, so the power will more efficiently go towards speed. And the charge will be controlled by software and a centralized utility data center. What is important is that startups are building the systems now. This puts a strain on the big automakers to be ready, or have a repeat of the GM fiasco. So consider that the next major mobile technology platform may land in your car.
The downside to this is that there will be an additional and substantial strain on the power grid. How do you prevent rolling blackouts, like the ones California experiences from time to time? Can you imagine if you are driving down the highway, but the grid has gone down to over bandwidth use? Having thousands of motorists stranded on the highway will produce riot conditions. Obviously the power grid itself will have to be upgraded as well before something as universal like this takes effect.
Using the Internet to help control how the power grid is operating may provide a solution to this problem. Power could be shifted from one area where it is not heavily used to another area where it is. The power grid is all about electricity; the Internet is all about information. One can be used to manage the other. So the next big technology change can take place now if we put the right tools together in the right place.
Source: GreenNet
