Instead of selling individual units, they would offer a low-power system that relied on a solar cell or car battery in remote areas that didn't have grid electricity.
After the bailout, they owned their own homes, they didn't pay into a corporate energy grid, and they didn't worry about food because they grew it on the roof.
That is a crazy tradeoff even if it didn't endanger the electric grid.
Under the new plan, 750 megawatts of new solar power plants will be built within the next 18 months, most likely in areas that aren't connected to the grid or in places that have grid connections but inadequate power supplies, Mr. Kapoor said.
After all, the phone network was built to carry information, the power grid wasn't.
The grid can't be repaired with all the pillaging and sabotage going on.
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.
The upshot is that utilities have accumulated huge losses and aren't in position to invest in grid upgrades.
Today, the electricity we use is carried along a grid of lines and wires that dates back to Thomas Edison, a grid that can't support the demands of clean energy.
Cuomo said that even if the transition from LIPA, and its currently contracted operator, National Grid, isn't done in time for the summer and fall hurricane season, Long Islanders will still be better served.
'I didn't anticipate being so far up the grid and so we need to capitalise on this opportunity.
"The biggest application for these might be in developing countries like India, where they may have a power grid but they don't have telephones, " says Cowles.
The more experienced and consistent Ralf Schumacher will be disappointed if his Williams doesn't figure at the front end of the grid and the race.
The method allows for many combinations that can mean many different pitches, and after the coach calls a string of numbers and the catcher deciphers the code on his grid, that sequence won't be used again for the rest of the game and maybe even the rest of the season.
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Though McCombs initially said it was "imperative" that an American be on the grid in Austin, there won't be any.
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But ubiquitous silicon and broadband have suddenly made such second-by-second tinkering with demand possible, and the idea of upgrading the century-old electric grid to make it more efficient isn't so crazy anymore.
And with Chambers County knocked off the electrical grid, no fuel means the generator won't be running.
But even dewy-eyed optimists don't predict the addition of many more nukes on the global grid within the next decade.
Energy is produced where it's used, so you don't have the reliance and dependence on an increasingly vulnerable and overstressed grid.
Despite the consolidation of hardware that grid computing could represent, Sun's Dutra isn't worried about the company's sales.
Meanwhile, the FDA approved the world's first bionic eye and biotech researchers developed a painless sugar-covered vaccine bandage that could replace needles and doesn't require refrigeration -- which opens up groundbreaking applications for off-grid locations in the developing world.
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But it isn't yet clear how many customers will have to sign up for the smart grid to get to that point.
"In terms of energy efficiency and conservation, just installing a smart meter isn't going to have much effect, " says Greg Guthridge, a smart-grid consultant with Accenture.
The TiVo Live Guide is great, but it isn't perfect, and it's not a complete replacement for the old fashioned grid guide, which is completely omitted from the app.
"Obviously we wouldn't want people to ignore it but people should call the fire brigade or the National Grid if they believe the smell is coming from their own home, " a spokeswoman said.
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The Internet won't be seen as a discrete activity for a PC, but as a sort of power grid, enhancing everything from small appliances to TV and telephony.
"Our grid is strong and resistant, but there are moments that the system simply can't withstand, " he told reporters in the capital Brasilia.
The strain on the grid with summer approaching is raising concern in corporate Japan, which fears it won't have enough power to run production lines in the country.
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As with the homepage, the layout isn't much to look at -- it's laid out in a basic 3-by-4 grid.
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