As we mentioned last week here, there are already 1.7 million smart meters deployed in Texas, and 6 million will be deployed by 2013. This article from the Financial Post notes that about 76 million smart meters have been installed around the world and that number is expected to more than double by 2013.

What are Smart Meters?

Smart meters pinpoint and record how much and when electricity is used — typically on an hourly basis — and automatically transmit that information to the utility via a two-way communications network. Whereas, conventional electricity meters measure the only total amount of electricity used over a specified billing period.

Picture: Wikipedia

As a pragmatist, I think it is a wise maneuver to rethink this country’s aversion to nuclear power.

And then today, the Wall Street Journal reported on a new type of smaller nuclear reactor.

[It is] smaller than a rail car and one tenth the cost of a big plant—is emerging as a contender to reshape the nation’s resurgent nuclear power industry.

Three big utilities, Tennessee Valley Authority, First Energy Corp. and Oglethorpe Power Corp., on Wednesday signed an agreement with McDermott International Inc.’s Babcock & Wilcox subsidiary, committing to get the new reactor approved for commercial use in the U.S.

While nuclear is clearly not as environmentally friendly as wind and solar, it is much cleaner than coal. The country needs to embrace energy efficiency, nuclear, and renewables to create energy independence.

“That region of the country has 80 gigawatts of renewable energy potential. It’s massive,” said Phillip Harris, architect of the Tres Amigas plan. Tres Amigas is the company who made the proposal.  ”And this nation needs that to meet all the climate issues, environmental issues and energy needs…”What I’ve done, I’ve engineered a solution to get the three large North American interconnections to move power in and amongst themselves in a credible way.”

The initial cost could begin at $300 million and rise to $1 billion as the station’s capacity expands, he said. Initially, it will have the capacity to move 5 gigawatts of electricity, with a top potential of 30 gigawatts. “We are going to build it in components, like a space station,” Harris said.

The co-owners of Tres Amigas are Ziad Alaywan, former head of market and grid operations for the California Independent System Operator, who now heads the Z-Global consulting firm; Alt Energy LLC, an equity fund, and American Superconductor Corp., which provides the DC transmission cable technology.  They say they have not requested any federal funding for the project.

Hat tip to Bounce Energy for the article.