In an initiative that is untried in the country as yet, the state government will soon start a pilot project using smart grids produced by a company supported by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad in a city’s neighbourhood.
Ecolibrium Energy, an Ahmedabad-based company, “is in the process of implementing the first smart grid pilot in India,” a release from the Center for Innovation Incubation and Entreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A said.
Smart grids are power grids with the ability to adapt to various electricity sources, be it conventional or clean energy. While electricity may flow from either a wind mill or solar cell, changes in the weather may abruptly stop the electricity flow (clouds may cover the sun or winds may stop). In such cases, smart grids change their sources to conventional sources; drawing power from a conventional energy power plant instead, for example.
Besides this, smart grids can also send signals to both power plants and end-users like homes or office buildings, constantly telling them how much energy they are consuming. The power plant can then either cut down the amount of power it generates or the end user can cut down its consumption accordingly.
The CIIE is currently undertaking its RE-Search (Renewable Energy Search) programme with support from the state government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Ecolibrium Energies is one of its incubatees.
Chintan Soni, the company’s MD and CEO, said the project would involve 130 kilo watts and the agreement would be for two years. The project is likely to scale up to include 3-4 neighbourhoods in a month or two, he added.
Adopted from : The Times of India
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Fate of Google Wave
Was it a social network or a collaboration tool on steroids? Nobody could quite agree, and it's one reason for the demise of Google Wave.
The company is disappointed with the user adoption and has announced it will discontinue developing Wave as a stand-alone product.
Google Wave was largely an Australian developed product. Google will maintain the service through the end of the year and will roll the technology into other projects, according to senior vice-president for operations, Urs Hölzle.
Jonathan Yarmis, a senior research fellow with analyst Ovum, said Wave's strength -- its lack of definition -- was also its greatest weakness as you could do any of the things incorporated into Wave in other, more accessible, fashions. "The ongoing growth of things like Facebook and Twitter probably killed Wave, as conversations that might have taken place there instead migrated to either a social platform -- Facebook - or a more conversational tool - Twitter", said New York-based Yarmis. "Even Google Buzz played a role in Wave's death as the two were somewhat similarly targeted but Buzz, being more Twitter-like, was easier to understand and embrace."
Ovum went so far as to call Google a 'one trick pony', referring to the company's dominance in search and advertising.
"Everything else is merely distraction, or survives in its ability to feed the advertising beast, which represents 98 per cent of Google's revenue. Of course, fortunately for Google, that one trick is a really good trick."
The analyst thinks Wave may be reincarnated in very different fashion if Google launches its rumoured Facebook competitor.
"If and when Google introduces its platform -- and really, it's just a question of when -- this would have obsoleted Wave anyhow," Yarmis said. "This way they just put a bullet in it now, so when they introduce the next platform, the focus isn't on how this co-exists with Wave or what this means for Wave or anything like that. Wave is gone, will be quickly forgotten and when Google does the next thing, for the most part no one will focus on Wave."
Adopted from: http://www.pcworld.com/
The company is disappointed with the user adoption and has announced it will discontinue developing Wave as a stand-alone product.
Google Wave was largely an Australian developed product. Google will maintain the service through the end of the year and will roll the technology into other projects, according to senior vice-president for operations, Urs Hölzle.
Jonathan Yarmis, a senior research fellow with analyst Ovum, said Wave's strength -- its lack of definition -- was also its greatest weakness as you could do any of the things incorporated into Wave in other, more accessible, fashions. "The ongoing growth of things like Facebook and Twitter probably killed Wave, as conversations that might have taken place there instead migrated to either a social platform -- Facebook - or a more conversational tool - Twitter", said New York-based Yarmis. "Even Google Buzz played a role in Wave's death as the two were somewhat similarly targeted but Buzz, being more Twitter-like, was easier to understand and embrace."
Ovum went so far as to call Google a 'one trick pony', referring to the company's dominance in search and advertising.
"Everything else is merely distraction, or survives in its ability to feed the advertising beast, which represents 98 per cent of Google's revenue. Of course, fortunately for Google, that one trick is a really good trick."
The analyst thinks Wave may be reincarnated in very different fashion if Google launches its rumoured Facebook competitor.
"If and when Google introduces its platform -- and really, it's just a question of when -- this would have obsoleted Wave anyhow," Yarmis said. "This way they just put a bullet in it now, so when they introduce the next platform, the focus isn't on how this co-exists with Wave or what this means for Wave or anything like that. Wave is gone, will be quickly forgotten and when Google does the next thing, for the most part no one will focus on Wave."
Adopted from: http://www.pcworld.com/
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