With all of this stimulus money comming through the pipes Google and General Electric have partnered up in pushing "Smart Grids" . Smart Grids is a combination of electrical hardware provided by GE and software provided by Google to reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes each day. An example of this would be like a gas pump. When you are filling up your car you get to see the amout that it costs right there. If you had a meter right beside your water fosset you would naturaly tend to use less water. Well Google and GE have put prototypes into homes to keep track of the amount of energy a family uses. With the meter sitting beside the switch people tend not reason with themselves and leave the lights off when they are not nessesary. If the free market will push this idea through it will solve alot of the energy problems. If %25 of americans installed a Smart Meter 1.6 million cars would be off of the road and 9.1 million tons of CO2 emissions would be reduced. "Google.org has commited over $100 million in grants and investments as of September 2008. In the energy area, those investments target renewable energies, like high-altitude wind extraction, solar power, and geothermal systems, but also plug-in vehicles."
I think that if this idea catches fire, it will change the way we use energy. I know for a fact that if I could see how much it costs to take a shower I would not take the long hot shower. I might keep it hot but not as long. Just seeing the bill like a gas meter is enough to get people to save energy. The only problem with this idea will be is if it costs alot of money to install. That will be the downfall. I would not want to install a piece of equipment that is going to change my routine and is expensive. This will be great for the planet and great for the wallet only if it is worth the investment or the hassle.
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