The deal has been helped along by the courts, which have recently upheld a power purchase agreement it had with National Grid to buy half of the power that it would generate.

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Concerned that Shnaider had no experience running critical infrastructure, the European bank gave up its option to buy 20% of the grid.

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While that still sounds expensive, compared to the five cents per kilowatt Ford pays to buy energy off the power grid, it's worth it, Ford says.

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Price transparency will also allow micropower plants to buy and sell power on the grid as demand dictates, so improving the grid's reliability.

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Few people off the grid have the funds to buy the kilowatt-scale solar system commonly found on Gridder homes.

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National Grid announced an agreement Thursday to buy power from a small project set to be built by Deepwater Wind near Block Island, R.

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He gave big industrial customers the freedom to buy electricity under contract from the cheapest provider, or directly from the national grid at a spot price.

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Those demand spikes are unavoidable mini-disasters for energy companies -- their own grid doesn't have the power on hand, and the utility has to buy it elsewhere -- competing with other utilities trying to keep the lights on for their customers.

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The gasoline engine serves as an on-board personal electric utility for when you forget to plug in to the local grid, or for ensuring a total range to match that of any conventional car you'd buy today.

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