[July 09, 2014] - S&C Electric wins $11 million Devens, Massachusetts solar project: Council Lead Partner S&C Electric, a global leader in renewable energy integration, will design and build a 3.6 MW solar photovoltaic farm in Devens, MA. The project will be the third plant built by S&C for Green States Energy (GSE). S&C recently completed two a 2.5 MW solar farm in Roswell, N.M., and a 4.1 MW solar farm in Sandwich, Mass. for GSE.
Microsoft opens transparency center for government customers: To assure its government customers that their data is secure, Council Lead Partner Microsoft recently opened the first of what it says will be a number of regional transparency centers. This one is located on its Redmond, Washington campus. "Our Transparency Centers provide participating governments with the ability to review source code for our key products, assure themselves of their software integrity, and confirm there are no 'back doors,'" Matt Thomlinson, VP for Trustworthy Computing Security,wrote on a Microsoft blog.
Agreement expands Alphinat solutions in Canada: Council Associate Partner Alphinat and Unisys Canada entered an agreement to commercialize Alphinat SmartGuide software, the one-stop web, mobile and cloud solution development platform that enables cities to easily create, deploy and manage intelligent, personalized web applications. Unisys will market and provide technical expertise to implement SmartGuide solutions to clients across Canada. "Alphinat SmartGuide provides us with a proven technology to rapidly deliver online services for our clients for applications rendered on multiple devices and platforms," said Tim Feick, a Unisys VP.
Opower on what Tesla owners are doing while you sleep: An interesting post on the website of Council Associate Partner Opower reveals the dramatic energy consumption spikes that occur due to electric vehicle charging in the middle of the night. Reason for the spikes? Opower says EV owners have signed up with their utility to get highly discounted electricity between midnight and 7 a.m., in exchange for a daytime price hike. "Offering an off-peak rate plan tends to be a savvy move by utilities," write Barry Fischer and Ben Harack. "It helps them prevent power-hungry electric cars from overtaxing the electric grid during the day, when system-wide demand is already on the high side." But what's also interesting, they say EV rate plan subscribers continue to out-consume their peers even during the waking hours.
Neptune Technology a winner in Amazon cloud challenge: Council Associate Partner Neptune Technology Group was one of eight winners in Amazon Web Services' first City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge. Neptune, a grand prize winner in the Partners in Innovation Award competition, was cited for its cloud-based data mart that enables local utility companies to leverage water usage data to better manage local resources. New York City Department of Transportation, city of Asheville, London City Airport, and the city and county of San Francisco won in the city best practices division.