Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday unveiled an $825 billion plan to stimulate the American economy, including $54 billion for renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart grid projects.
Smart grid projects pulled one of the biggest chunks of the cash, with $11 billion being proposed. The numbers are far from final as the money must be approved by the U.S. Senate and President-elect Barack Obama, but it indicates that tides could be turning for one of the lesser-known sectors of cleantech...
“One things that got smart grid in the stimulus package is that these are shovel-ready projects. The technology is available and people are ready to go,” he said. “There’s so much momentum around smart grid right now that I hope the stimulus spending happens in a way to give utilities a very quick turnaround on whatever the process is.”
The House version of the proposal calls for the money to be distributed as grants to utilities, but Jung warned such a process could slow the spending by about six months. He encouraged lawmakers to come up with standard requirements so that utilities could start projects and file for reimbursement.
http://www.cleantech.com/news/4066/smart-grid-could-be-early-winner-us-stimulus-package