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24 June 2011
GreenerBuildings: GE, Best Buy Partner to Market Smart Grid Home Energy Controls
Source: www.greenerbuildings.com
A device that can lower energy bills by reducing the voltage of electricity streaming into a house and a gadget to control AC based on room temperature and occupancy are slated for a fast track to store shelves under a new partnership between General Electric and Best Buy.
GE announced its hookup with Best Buy yesterday as part of a broad announcement of developments flowing from the year-old ecomagination challenge.
GE and four venture capital partners launched the crowd-sourced competition last July with a commitment of $200 million (with half coming from GE). The contest was aimed at identifying innovations that will push widespread adoption of technology fostering aggressive energy efficiency and a smarter power grid.
The idea, said ecomagination Vice President Mark Vachon, was to "search well beyond the walls of GE for those terrific ideas."
"The challenge has changed how we do business at GE," he said.
Awards amounting to $71 million in the first round of the innovation challenge were made in November. Yesterday, besides the deal with Best Buy, GE also announced:
• The second round of innovation challenge awards:
-- $63 million in investments and partnerships with 10 startup firms and innovators that are developing consumer cleantech solar, communications and software, and building efficiency products. Four of the winning companies, listed below, will be familiar to GreenBiz.com readers for their work with businesses.
-- Five $100,000 grants to Innovation Award winners in the U.S. and United Kingdom. The firms are working on standalone, off-grid solar power systems, solar windows, smart meter software, air conditioner controls and green compressors for refrigerators and AC.
• A further $20 million commitment to scale and fund commercial pilots of ideas generated by the ecomagination challenge.
• A plan for an ecomagination challenge in China. The new program is in the design stage, and GE and its venture capital partners are considering a launch of the region-specific competition later this year.
• A plan to establish a $5 million seed fund in partnership with the Carbon Trust to support early-stage development of innovation ideas in Europe. The Carbon Trust joined the challenge program last fall.
While the investments, grants, seed money and partnerships support the challenge's goals of identifying, funding and scaling innovations, the arrangement with Best Buy is intended to bring the initiative full circle by providing a swift route to the marketplace.
Products from second-round winners VPhase and Suntulit have been selected for fast-tracking: They'll get a boost to prepare for retail testing, which is to be conducted in select Best Buy markets.
VPhase, based in Manchester, England, produces a voltage optimizer that's available in the UK. The device connects to the fuse board in the home and reduces incoming voltage at 240 volts to 220 volts, the amount required by most household appliances in the UK.
Although it's not a device that can be installed by do-it-yourselfers, its makers say its appeal lies in the fact that purchasers need not change their habits or sacrifice comforts to save 10 percent on their electricity bills.
The company offers a handy everyday comparison to illustrate the savings: "Almost all your appliances don't need those additional 25 volts and you'd save 10 percent off your electricity bill straightaway -- that's like 40 pints of beer," says a video from VPhase, below.
Suntulit, based Fremont, Calif., is working on technology to control air conditioning based on room temperature or occupany so that the AC doesn't blast away when and where it's not needed. Suntulit's website is still under development, but the finalist in the 2010 Clean Tech
Open has a Facebook page.
No date was discussed for testing of the two products, but a GE said its Nucleus Energy Manager, a plug-in device introduced last July for use in homes, is now expected to reach store shelves early next year and will be available at Best Buy.
GE, which has rolled out a smart-grid ready water-heater, dishwasher and refrigerator, anticipates a growing market for home energy management products -- so much so that it created a new business unit for them last fall. The second round of the ecomagination challenge, with its focus on home energy and resource management, is expected to help address that demand.
Since its launch, the ecomagination challenge has led to $134 million in investments, 22 commercial partnerships for GE and pursuit of a range of technologies from a pool of 5,000 submissions. "I think what we've developed here is a platform that can be used in a variety of directions," said Vachon. "And it's shown that it's developed a capability of having a life of its own."
VPhase, based in Manchester, England, produces a voltage optimizer that's available in the UK. The device connects to the fuse board in the home and reduces incoming voltage at 240 volts to 220 volts, the amount required by most household appliances in the UK.
Although it's not a device that can be installed by do-it-yourselfers, its makers say its appeal lies in the fact that purchasers need not change their habits or sacrifice comforts to save 10 percent on their electricity bills.
The company offers a handy everyday comparison to illustrate the savings: "Almost all your appliances don't need those additional 25 volts and you'd save 10 percent off your electricity bill straightaway -- that's like 40 pints of beer," says a video from VPhase, below.
Suntulit, based Fremont, Calif., is working on technology to control air conditioning based on room temperature or occupany so that the AC doesn't blast away when and where it's not needed. Suntulit's website is still under development, but the finalist in the 2010 Clean Tech
Open has a Facebook page.
No date was discussed for testing of the two products, but a GE said its Nucleus Energy Manager, a plug-in device introduced last July for use in homes, is now expected to reach store shelves early next year and will be available at Best Buy.
GE, which has rolled out a smart-grid ready water-heater, dishwasher and refrigerator, anticipates a growing market for home energy management products -- so much so that it created a new business unit for them last fall. The second round of the ecomagination challenge, with its focus on home energy and resource management, is expected to help address that demand.
Since its launch, the ecomagination challenge has led to $134 million in investments, 22 commercial partnerships for GE and pursuit of a range of technologies from a pool of 5,000 submissions. "I think what we've developed here is a platform that can be used in a variety of directions," said Vachon. "And it's shown that it's developed a capability of having a life of its own."
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