Gene Herring/gTM

IBM To Research Smart Grid Tech

Replacing coal-fired power plants with cleaner energy sources, mostly renewables, simply willl not work even with a super smart grid. Renewable sources such as wind and solar are not base load sources for power. We are forced to rely on coal, gas and nuclear power for a large share of the base load until we can discover another power generation source that is available online 24/7. We should not diminish our present power sources without pursuing research for clean coal and modernized nuclear generatinig plants. In addition to a smart grid approach there must a serious upgrade of the entire transmission grid to mesh with new sources coming online in the future.