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SFIP enjoyed some very favorable local press coverage last week, in the Santa Fe New Mexican and Albuquerque Business First (summarized below). This is especially gratifying because SFIP, while global in its outlook and desired impact, works at the community scale; and we find that northern New Mexico and Santa Fe are often great test-beds for developing community-centric solutions.
In addition, SFIP has an economic development role to play in the local economy. Indeed, its genesis was as an economic development strategy for Santa Fe, posing the question: Can a city do technology-based economic development without a research university to draw on? And posing the answer: let’s position Santa Fe as a globally recognized center for creative problem solving. The original plan called for an ambitious physical facility, that would host leading organizations in residence for extended periods to assist them with their innovation challenges. Then came the recession… Read the rest of this entry »
Anyone following SFIP’s Microgrid Systems Lab (MSL) knows how many good reasons there are to move toward this highly decentralized architecture in terms of efficiency, reduced greenhouse emissions, community engagement, and alleviating energy poverty in un-wired portions of the planet.
Now, a number of recent research reports and presentations have added impetus to the microgrid trend by addressing various aspects of the business case: the economics of microgrid deployment, the pace of development, the societal value of conversion, and the cost of inaction. We’ve summarized some of the most interesting below, beginning with the “big picture” of current grid costs and potential, and then moving on to microgrids’ role and value.
Economic benefit of Smart Grid efficiencies by 2030: $2 trillion
Estimated cost: $338 billion. Courtesy of George Arnold, national coordinator for smart grid interoperability at the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Given the role that microgrids can and will play as enabling infrastructure for many of the most valuable aspects of the smart grid revolution, we can can assign some meaningful portion of this projected $2 trillion efficiency to them, going forward. Read the rest of this entry »
This post is a call to action to the SFIP community, in support of essential infrastructure for Santa Fe’s “innovation ecosystem.”
As many will have already read or heard, Google has announced a program under which it will install (at no charge) gigabit capacity fiber-optic telecommunications infrastructure in a few select communities, nationwide. This will be an open-architecture system, allowing any and all ISPs to utilize the bandwidth, encouraging experimentation and competition, and reducing costs, to the benefit of the consumer.
This level of telecom capacity will be essential to SFIP’s operations, to the ability of all of Santa Fe’s outstanding innovation centers to collaborate, and to connect with the fuller outside community of resources and participants.
It will also serve as essential infrastructure for economic development and equity for the entire Santa Fe community; quality of life enhancements in education, medical care, emergency services, and information and entertainment; and the City’s ability to attract and retain young, smart, and talented people along with leading institutions.
City staff will be leading the charge in preparing the formal application, and they deserve our appreciation and support. Here’s how to show it, easy as 1, 2, 3: Read the rest of this entry »
SFIP | Santa Fe Innovation Park 