The production and distribution of power moving from utilities to the home are being explored and considered as the next trend in sustainable energy. Instead of power produced and distributed solely by large utilities, "open energy systems" allow smaller providers, a single home, neighbourhood or town, to produce power that they then use, often from renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Agile micro-grids, in which consumers become producers, make it possible to turn lights on in remote villages. In addition, open energy systems also have the potential to help developed nations move away from fossil fuels by producing and distributing renewable energy on more localised and reliable scales.

This more open system is not too far off from becoming a reality, according to Hiroaki Kitano, a professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan.

"We are moving into a new era," Kitano said during the Second International Symposium on Open Energy Systems held at OIST last Feb. 2 and 3. "We will continued with our research, but we can start talking about real deployment."

More than 100 energy experts, venture capitalists and government officials from all over the world gathered at OIST to share their experiences with renewable energy and discuss the potential of creating a more open, distributed energy system.

As an example of an open energy system, Kitano showed participants the direct current micro-grid system installed on OIST faculty housing. Kitano and colleagues from the Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. (Sony CSL) designed the system that combines solar panels with a so-called "energy server." Okinawa, with its sub-tropical environment, salty air and typhoons, provides a suitable proving ground for other island nations that might use this sort of system.

By: DocMemory
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