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Europe, China Outpace U.S. in Smart Grid Adoption
Europe and China are outpacing the United States when it comes to smart grid adoption and technologies.
How are other countries utilizing smart grid innovations?
 

Don Schjeldahl, Vice President of Renewable Energy Strategies, The Austin Company
The Europeans are farther along with the smart grid compared to most of the world, including the United States. Germany, Denmark, Spain, and Italy adopted renewable energy early (a 30-year jump on the United States). This has given them time to develop and implement smart grid technologies on a large scale. The German feed-in tariff, for example, has made “power suppliers” out of many private citizens. The German electric grid has been modernized to accommodate distributed generation. The biggest smart grid player today is China. Much is made of China’s rising use of coal to generate electricity, and excessive pollution in the process. What most people don’t know is that the Chinese are investing huge amounts (reportedly three or four times what the United States spends) to deploy renewable energy resources and smart grid technologies.
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About the Author

Don Schjeldahl, Vice President of Renewable Energy Strategies, The Austin Company
Don Schjeldahl has more than 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of corporate location strategies for commercial and industrial clients. The work has been performed in urban and rural areas throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Prior to joining The Austin Company in 1984, Schjeldahl had seven years experience in demographic analysis, sales forecasting, and real estate evaluation for general merchandise and food store operations at Kmart Corporation and Kroger. He holds a BA in Geography from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and an MA in Geography from Wayne State University in Detroit.

More articles by Don Schjeldahl

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