Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., released a software tool designed to help utilities and utility customers (and the electrical contractors they hire) “assess the economic value of installing an energy storage...
A Brooklyn startup has found a way to recover otherwise-wasted kinetic energy from passing vehicles, so it could be put “back to work” in the form of regenerated power. RoadPower Systems Inc., New York, has developed “smart...
Retail food stores are undergoing critical shifts initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic that may affect the size and use of facilities, where they are built and how they are staffed long after the world returns to normal. Many...
Selling physical security is not about hawking hardware and trying to convince the client that one product is better than the other. Customers are looking for ways to leverage technology to solve their challenges and a single...
The digital transformation was on full display at CES 2021, held Jan. 11–14 in Las Vegas. It turns out the pandemic, now more than a year old, has become a proving ground for innovation, accelerating digital platforms and...
Traditionally, warehouses have been sprawling, manually operated facilities with a handful of forklifts, a waiting room for truck drivers and stacks of paperwork to document transactions. However, shifts in retail...
The new year is always a good time to think about the future. In 2020, many of us were strictly focused on keeping our businesses afloat, trying to maintain a stable workforce and following mandated guidelines to prevent the...
Improve lighting, and you will improve a facility’s energy efficiency. Manage your lighting—with equipment, technology and best practices—and you will reduce overall energy consumption and reduce costs. As LED and other...
Recently, a Scottsbluff, Neb., home caught fire. Fortunately, the residents got out safely. The cause was a loose fuse holder connection that was glowing red hot and smoldering. Had an electrician performed any work on the...
When it comes to battery-based energy storage, lithium-ion (Li-ion) technology owns the market, from laptops up to utility-scale projects meant to offset the need for natural gas peaking plants. Other chemistries simply haven...
Innovation has been the driving force of change in the energy industry in recent years. While the demand for change is strong, the challenge of paying for new energy technology remains formidable. In the spirit of change...
Through sensors, receivers and big data, the smart farm is taking shape. In the 1980s, GPS cracked the door. Mobile communication, artificial intelligence and a multitude of sensors have blown it wide open. To get it done...
Most contractors work with building models to aid the design and installation of construction projects. As the systems being installed become more complex, so too do the tools to model them. One of the newest software...
“Think big” has been the U.S. nuclear-energy industry’s motto for most of the 60-plus years since the Shippingport Atomic Power Station went online in 1957 in Beaver County, Pa. Now, though, with electricity sources shifting...
As workers return to their jobs, travel resumes and schools and event venues begin to reopen, technology promises several tools to help ensure those who enter a facility or campus are healthy and maintain social distances. To...
What will workplaces look like as they begin to reopen from the coronavirus? Will contact tracing with smartphones locate, track and report potential carriers? Will temperature and fever detection become required to gain...
Offshore wind has the potential to generate enough electricity to meet the needs of the entire United States two times over, according to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The lab is...
As the world slowly returns to work and public spaces, technology is being leveraged to keep the coronavirus in check and prevent spread of the contagion. Many in the workforce and others will soon find themselves part of new...
Wilmington, Del., is getting brighter and better thanks to smarter lighting. The city has a bold, aggressive plan to install LED lighting. Through its SMART City LED streetlight program, and with city council concurrence...
A personal device charging pad, cordless headphones, a wireless television … the list goes on. People rely on these things as they become increasingly mobile. But does a wireless world mean that we, as electrical contractors...
