Electical Contractor

Transformative change often requires major societal shifts to reach and cross the proverbial tipping point.

In the ongoing push for a cleaner and more sustainable energy society, growing popular and political support for renewables are two strong indicators of success.

As the result of the rapid expansion of smart grid and advanced meter infrastructure, many utilities around the country are replacing existing meters with new solid-state smart meters and two-way communication devices. These new systems offer significant benefits to the consumer and utility.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu recently announced that 13 major U.S. employers and eight stakeholder groups have joined the new Workplace Charging Challenge to help expand access to workplace charging stations for workers driving plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs).

In these times of rapidly changing technologies and consumer needs, industries must react with agility. Two of the electrical industry’s biggest heavyweights launched divisions and services in an effort to evolve with the times.

With all the hype and the ­investment that has been given to the solar industry in recent years, it should come as no surprise that the industry is taking off. That means job opportunities in the industry are also plentiful.

Today’s home automation market isn’t so much evolving as it is mutating, like one of those time-lapse videos of microbes in a Michael Crichton science-fiction movie.

With 115 million households in America— more than twice as many as there were 50 years ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—the demand for residential lighting and controls has both grown and evolved to appeal to a savvier, more high-tech, and more energy-conscious consumer.

We’re now more than a year into the release of the first two major players in the electric vehicle (EV) market—Nissan’s all-electric Leaf and Chevy’s hybrid-electric Volt, and results so far are decidedly, well, undecided.