The Past and Future of Smart Grid

Smart grid may be the most hyped words of 2009 in the green tech space, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of hard, cold cash behind the hype. Will 2010 bring a bursting of a smart grid bubble, or a continued unfolding of its promise to provide a framework for renewable energy, efficiency and conservation programs to come? Let these top stories of 2009 be your guide.

1. Government as Market Maker: There’s no doubt that smart grid projects wouldn’t have seen the success they’ve seen without a big helping hand from the public sector. In the United States, the $3.9 billion in Department of Energy smart grid stimulus grants given out this fall was widely seen as critical for unlocking private funds largely left on the sidelines amidst an ongoing financial crisis and economic downturn. (See DOE’s $3.4B Smart Grid Grant Program: The Winners and DOE Doles Out $620M for Smart Grid for a breakdown on where the money went, as well as this Green Light post for some that were left out).

But along with the carrots of government grants and incentives are the sticks of mandates to come. The European

Union

and individual nations have set deadlines for bringing two-way communications and control to their electricity grids.

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