CleanTech OC Daily - 4/4/12

Shopping Around for Electricity Starts to Take Hold
Retail suppliers of electricity now have increased competition as stakeholders shop around for the best rates. Though some states, like California, have limited competition, a recent report notes that California has moved slowly towards competition for C&I customers.

Google to build its first thermal storage for a data center

Google is already known for creative ways to make data centers greener and more energy efficient. They now plan to implement a new energy efficient feature for a data center in Taiwan: thermal energy storage. These systems are an excellent approach to savings when power grid rates are high, and using liquid or ice is a cleaner and longer lasting way to store energy than batteries.

Electric car charging: Let’s not make this more complicated

Highly visible, convenient, and accessible charging stations are bound to capture the EV consumer market. This may not be so simple due a number of complicated road blocks like membership fees for stations, limited charging locations, and proprietary issues.