Silent Power is proud to announce its most recent round of financing.  This financing will be used to start to deliver on a number of projects that are scheduled for 2011.  Pictured above from left to right is Todd Headlee, CEO of Silent Power, Mark Vogt, President and CEO of Wright-Hennepin, and Arnie Johnson, Chairman of the Board for Silent Power.

Silent Power Raises $2 Million in Strategic Financing

Minnesota-headquartered company to increase commercial deployment, market penetration of its OnDemand energy storage system.

Baxter, Minn. (December 27, 2010) – Silent Power, Inc., the leading distributed energy storage systems company, announced today the sale of approximately $2 million of the company’s Series A preferred stock.

This round of financing will support the commercial deployment of Silent Power’s OnDemand energy storage systems and expand its distribution into new markets. Silent Power specializes in providing turn-key storage solutions for the challenges presented by integrating renewable energy and electric vehicle charging systems into utilities’ distribution systems and on customer premises.

The financing includes support from Hunt Technologies’ founder Paul Hunt, Wright-Hennepin Holding Company LLC, a subsidiary of Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association of Rockford, and strong ongoing support from existing investors.

“As a customer and distribution partner, we think Silent Power has put together a great and flexible solution for an application that’s poised for significant growth,” said Mark Vogt, President and CEO of Wright-Hennepin. “Intelligent, distributed energy storage is a critical and scalable asset class that will help our industry manage the increasing penetration of renewable energy, as well as improve the quality and reliability of power we provide our customers. Locally, we believe Silent Power’s products will provide Wright-Hennepin’s members with superior options as they consider renewable energy investments for their homes and businesses.”

England & Company served as exclusive financial advisor to Silent Power in this transaction.

Silent Power also recently elected Vogt as the newest member of its board of directors.

“We are delighted to welcome Mark Vogt to the board,” said Todd Headlee, CEO of Silent Power. “His expertise and industry insight will be essential as we expand our presence in the cooperatively owned utility markets around the nation and commercialize our energy storage technologies. We are honored to have the support of customers, fellow smart-grid innovators, and others involved in the financing. Our energy storage solutions are proven technologies that can help utilities rely on cleaner sources of energy and help homeowners seamlessly integrate renewable energy into their lives.”

About Silent Power

Based in Baxter, Minn., Silent Power, Inc. manufactures and markets easy-to-install, highly reliable distributed energy storage systems for the renewable energy and backup power markets. The company has developed dispatchable storage solutions for grid-tied solar and electric vehicle charging applications, and its solutions are easily adaptable to any battery chemistry and utility advanced metering infrastructure or distribution automation communications platform. The company has previously announced a smart grid pilot project with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. For more information, please visit www.silentpwr.com.

Media Contact

Maria Surma Manka

952-851-7244

mmanka@tunheim.com

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed AB 2514, an energy storage bill into law this evening.  The passage of this bill is a major step forward for reliable, clean and lower cost electric power for all Californians.  The bill recognizes that the amount of electricity that can be generated at any given time is a relatively fixed amount, but actual demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day. Integrating energy storage technology will allow California’s electric distribution system to meet and accommodate the ups and downs of energy demand. Furthermore, increasing energy storage capacity would help promote intermittent energy sources like wind and solar power and contribute to an overall more reliable smart grid.  With storage, Californians will have clean power when and where they need it and with less need for new transmission lines.  Many experts believe that California will require about 4,000 megawatts of  storage mainly from batteries located close to loads on the distribution grid with the capability to store several hours of energy.  This is exactly the market the Silent Power is addressing with its OnDemand Energy Appliance.  Silent Power is leading the way in this area with the project that is underway in Sacramento at SMUD.

Silent Power is proud to be selected as featured speaker at the 3rd Annual Storage Week event this week in San Diego, California.  Todd Headlee will giving a presentation called “Maximizing Value Streams for Utilities by using Residential Energy Storage”.  The presentation will focus on the economic and societal benefits for putting energy storage at the edge of the grid by attaching it to residential and commercial Solar PV installations.

In the tradition of the previous two, sold-out editions of this flagship event, the expanded programming of Storage Week promises to be the ultimate networking event of the year for anyone with a stake in the integration of storage into the grid. The conference’s four separate but complementary events will cover the complete range of storage policies, markets, project applications and technologies.

Storage Week will kick off with a pair of Workshops on July 12 – Community Energy Storage and Making the Business Case For Grid-Scale Storage Projects. The two-day Energy Storage Summit (July 13 & 14) will examine the market design, policy incentives and barriers that apply to all storage systems. The Summit will be highlighted by two separate tracks: Bulk Storage and Grid Services. Storage Week will conclude on July 15 with the Technology & Investment Showcase; a future-oriented day dedicated to investment potential, market trends and astonishing new technology.

All four days of the meeting will not only tackle current policy and market barriers but will provide a robust environment for networking and deal-making between storage vendors and users as well as investors and storage companies seeking venture or growth capital. Once again, Storage Week will be the place to be this July for anyone with a stake in the integration of storage into the grid.

URL: http://www.infocastinc.com/index.php/conference/storage10

Baxter, MN – June 15, 2010 – Silent Power named as a semifinalist in Clean & Green category of the Minnesota Cup.

The Minnesota Cup is “an annual, statewide competition that seeks out aspiring entrepreneurs and their breakthrough ideas.”  The Cup is broken down into 6 divisions: BioSciences, High Tech, Clean Tech & Renewable Energy, Social Entrepreneurship, General, and Student.  Silent Power is one of 9 semifinalists in the Clean Technology & Renewable Energy Division.

Shown below, from left to right is Anne Archibald, Todd Headlee, and John Frederick of Silent Power attending the semifinalist reception at the JJ Hill Reference Library in St. Paul Minnesota.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District Teams With Silent Power

for Solar Storage Pilot Project

MINNEAPOLIS (June 14, 2010) – Silent Power, a renewable technology company that designs distributed energy storage systems to maximize the value of renewable power resources, today announced it will supply the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) with distributed energy storage technology to aid in completing the utility’s photovoltaic (PV) storage pilot at Anatolia.

The utility’s $5.9 million pilot project will evaluate how the integration of energy storage enhances the value of distributed PV resources for the community, the utility and the grid by reducing peak loads, firming intermittent renewable capacity and maximizing overall system efficiency. Silent Power’s OnDemand^™ Home Energy Appliance is a distributed energy storage device that will store excess energy generated by a homeowner’s solar power system. When energy is needed during super- peak demand times (4 p.m. – 7 p.m.), SMUD and their customers can draw upon this stored energy from the OnDemand^™ system.

“Silent Power is honored to be part of SMUD’s cutting-edge efforts to implement storage technologies within its broader smart grid initiatives in its community,” said Todd Headlee, Silent Power CEO. “Our technology is helping to make energy storage mainstream and increases the societal value of renewable energy. We envision a future in which every solar PV installation includes energy storage.”

“The pilot project further demonstrates SMUD’s industry leadership in integrating renewable technologies that maximize the grid’s clean energy and reliability for our customers,” said Mark Rawson, SMUD senior project manager. “As part of our efforts to more broadly deploy smart grid technologies that enable easier integration of renewables, storage could be a valuable asset for SMUD and its customers. This pilot helps us understand the technical and economic feasibility of these types of storage technologies.”

Silent Power’s OnDemand^™ system will be placed in 15 homes in the i Rancho Cordova, Calif. Community. The pilot project will allow monitoring of PV systems, along with energy storage, to give SMUD a better assessment of the value of distributed energy resources from a utility standpoint. SMUD will be able to determine how well the storage systems can support its super-peak consumption times, when output from the PV systems drops significantly. Based on these outcomes, the utility may replicate the technology throughout its service territory should it prove feasible.

Silent Power will work in partnership with GridPoint, an established leader in smart grid software, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Navigant Consulting, SunPower and Saft, a provider of high-tech lithium ion batteries, to offer SMUD a complete solution to energy storage and management needs. The OnDemand^™ system will work hand-in-hand with GridPoint’s energy storage and deployment software that will monitor and dispatch power. Saft will provide the lithium ion batteries needed to power the OnDemand^™ systems.

For more information on the SMUD smart grid pilot project please visit www.smud.org.

About Silent Power

Based in Baxter, Minn., Silent Power, Inc. manufactures and markets easy-to-install, highly reliable distributed energy storage systems for the renewable energy, electric vehicle charge station, and backup power markets. For more information, please visit www.silentpwr.com.

Silent Power was asked to participate in a round table discussion yesterday regarding the business of the Smart Grid and the benefits for Minnesota companies and workforce.  The meeting was sponsored by the Minnesota Trade Office and the University of Minnesota.  Pictured above is John Frederick of Silent Power presenting the business case for Silent Power and distributed energy storage.  Discussion throughout the day included the following.

• The Smart Grid Concept
• US Government Policy Priorities for smart Grid and CleanEnergy
• US Department of Energy Vision for the Smart Grid
• International and Export Business Opportunities in Smart Grid
• Venture Capital and Investment in a Smart Grid Future
• Panel Discussion: The Communications Backbone – Technology Standards Critical to Smart Grid
• Panel Discussion: Smart Grid Domestic and International Opportunities
• Panel Discussion: The Promise of Smart Grid – An Engine for Job Growth

This was a great event and created an even higher sense of urgency with Minnesota business leaders and government officials on how critical it is for Minnesota to play a big role in providing smart grid technologies to this new and potentially very large emerging industry.

Silent Power Selected for Green Energy Grant from the

Minnesota Office of Energy Security

Silent Power is selected to receive $560,000 in federal funding through

a Minnesota renewable energy grant program.

MINNEAPOLIS (June 7, 2010) – Silent Power, a Minnesota-based renewable technology company that designs distributed energy storage systems to maximize the value of renewable energy resources, today announced it has been selected to receive $560,000 as part of a federally funded renewable energy grant program. Administered by the Minnesota Office of Energy Security, the $2 million renewable energy grant was made available through federal stimulus dollars provided to the state. Officials anticipate that grants given to Minnesota companies like Silent Power will make the state a leader in renewable energy production and innovation.

Silent Power will use the grant funds to increase production and broaden the nation-wide distribution of its soon-to-be-released renewable energy storage devices. These products maximize the use of renewable energy in the home and by local utilities by storing the energy as it is being generated and then releasing it for use in the home or onto the power grid during peak consumption hours.

“Silent Power’s products will improve the value of residential renewable energy and provide utilities with the ability to store and tap green energy sources at the times of day when they are most needed,” said Todd Headlee, Silent Power CEO. “We are proud that Silent Power has been selected by the Minnesota Office of Energy Security to help meet the renewable energy needs of tomorrow by making renewable power more accessible across the country.”

About Silent Power Products

The difficulty with popular renewable energy sources, like solar and wind power, is that the power is typically generated when the demand for energy is low: most utilities experience peak electrical demand between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., but unfortunately, most wind production occurs at night and solar production peaks around noon. As a result, utilities struggle to find an effective way to use renewable resources to provide consistent, reliable power to customers during peak consumption hours.

Silent Power produces technology that not only converts renewable energy sources into usable electric power, but stores the energy with advanced battery technology for use at a later time. Built for residential homes and small businesses with access to renewable energy sources, usually solar, Silent Power allows consumers to access renewable energy at the time of day when they need it the most. Also, as part of larger smart grid initiatives, the storage devices makes it easier for local utilities to store and then use that energy on the power grid during times of peak power demand.

About Silent Power

Based in Baxter, Minn., Silent Power, Inc. manufactures and markets easy-to-install, highly reliable distributed energy storage systems for the renewable energy and backup power markets. For more information, please visit www.silentpwr.com.

Silent Power attended the 20th Annual Energy Storage Association meeting last week in Charlotte, North Carolina.  There was a massive turnout this year with a strong presence from the investment, utility, and vendor community.  In the picture above is Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy giving one of the key note addresses.  Jim is a firm believer that several gigawatts of storage will be needed to offset the planned deployment of renewables in his territory over the next decade.  Some of the takeaways from his address is that distributed storage is more effective than centralized storage, and that more relief needs to be given to utilities to conduct storage technology pilot demonstrations.  Duke Energy is an early pioneer with the work they have done using their customers rooftops to deploy Solar PV technology.  Duke plans to continue this program which presents an opportunity to attach storage to many of these installations.  Another common theme during the keynote and during the entire event is that there are multiple value streams to the utility for the energy storage business case.  A lot of work is being done to quantify the various value streams by EPRI and various other organizations.  Out of the all storage technologies, many of the battery based solutions score quite well due to the multiple values streams that they can deliver.

Pictured above is US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, addressing the group.  Senator Wyden is the sponsor for the Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act.  Wyden and his staff have determined that energy storage is a mandatory component as many states and ultimately the nation marches towards a renewable energy portfolio standard.  Because storage is such a vital component to a clean energy economy, Wyden is proposing that energy storage technologies receive the same investment tax credit treatment that are currently in place for Solar and Wind.  The bill is technology agnostic and would apply to the entire Silent Power product family.  This bill would not likely be a standalone bill, but would be an element to any energy or climate change legislation that will be proposed this year.  The great news is that there doesn’t appear to be any obvious opposition to this bill.

Pictured above is John Frederick, myself, and Wyden staff member Dr. Ken Lutz.  Dr. Lutz is the chief architect of the Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act and key member of the Wyden team helping to develop energy policies and write legislation for the purpose of reducing the country’s use of fossil fuels, reducing dependence on foreign oil, and increasing energy efficiency.

California Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, working in partnership with California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., has introduced A.B.2514. The new legislation would mandate that utilities incorporate energy storage capacity into their operations: 2.25% of daytime peak demand for power by 2014 and 5% of peak demand by 2020.

Skinner and Brown maintain that enacting the bill will lower electricity costs and provide the state with an alternative to generating and supplying primarily fossil fuel-based power for only part-time daytime peak demand.

“Energy storage is the future,” Brown says. “It’s a fast-growing, clean technology industry that will save the state money and reduce pollution.”

“Given major advances in energy storage, the industry is now ready to provide high-technology, affordable, reliable products for California’s utilities and consumers,” adds Janice Lin, director of the California Energy Storage Alliance.

Bill proponents note that energy storage technologies can also increase the value and use of wind and solar power, which often rely on fossil fuel-based backup power.

[Via Renew Grid]

Our latest creation, the OnDemand Energy Appliance was sent to Vancouver Canada today.  Unfortunately this has nothing to do with the 2010 Winter Olympics, but was sent to CSA International to start the UL / CSA approval process.  The team at CSA does an excellent job and does all of our compliance testing.  We look forward to working with them again on this project.  They are currently wrapping up a project on our OnAlert Battery Backup System.  We expect that to be complete within in the upcoming weeks.  We will be deploying the OnDemand product with several utilities this year in North America.  We will be experimenting with a number of different battery chemistries including lead acid, advanced lead acid, and lithium-ion. We will be working with these utilities to determine the appropriate battery technology for this application as well as helping to identify various the marketing and incentive programs to deploy as distributed energy storage moves from concept to reality.  These are truly exciting times here at Silent Power!

There are a number of new pieces of storage legislation making their way through the political process that will would treat storage technology in a similar fashion as renewable energy technologies because of the positive impact that it would have with regard to grid stabilization. As we are out talking to utilities and regulators across the country it is becoming clear to us that the electric industry is starting to put a real value on storage technologies which should bode well for all companies in the energy storage value chain. Below is a summary of one of the most directly related pieces of proposed legislation.  The US Chamber of Commerce is showing strong support because storage technologies have the potential to cut some business energy costs in half by eliminating the demand charges.  This is a direct application of the Silent Power OnDemand Energy Appliance.

US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Supports Proposition of The Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2009

FAIR LAWN, N.J.–(Business Wire)– The US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE today announced that it fully supports The Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2009 (STORAGE) – Bill #S1091. The STORAGE bill, recently introduced by Senator Ron Wyden, addresses the overlooked issue of storing renewable energy. Renewable energy is not always available and is usually created during non-peak demand periods. Storage of renewable energy would allow the energy to be used during peak energy usage periods. The need for an investment tax credit for energy storage facilities and equipment is a necessity to shift the demands on the grid.

Under current law, tax credits are available for the generation of renewable energy, but not its storage. The STORAGE Bill would provide an investment tax credit for storage systems that require similar innovations and incentives as other energy technologies. Storage systems consist of a broad range of technologies, from water reservoirs, batteries and flywheels to thermal cooling systems.

“Energy storage is an often overlooked technology that could save millions of dollars in energy costs and help make renewable fuels viable options to replace oil and coal,” Senator Wyden said. “It just makes sense to store energy when it`s plentiful and draw it down when it`s needed. The STORAGE bill provides tax incentives for implementing these technologies and will create a market demand for energy storage technologies. I thank the US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE for supporting this legislation.”

One particular tax credit within the bill aims to provide a 30 percent investment tax credit for on-site use in individual homes, businesses and factories. This legislation will help pay for smart-grid devices to manage the charging and storage of the electricity. Building owners could use the tax credit to help finance thermal cooling systems, which will make ice at night when electricity is cheaper and use the ice to cool the building during the day.

“US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE supports this bill 100 percent. Previously, energy storage has been overlooked as a reliable and cost-saving solution for buildings. But energy storage, both in buildings or on the grid, is a critical element in the large scale implementation of renewable forms of energy,” said the CEO of the US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. “This proposed tax credit would not only help building managers save on operational costs, but it would also significantly reduce the demand on the grid.”

Rooftop Solar, Batteries Included

Silent Power wants to be the battery-solar panel system in GE’s future net-zero energy homes, which will likely require utility rebates.

General Electric‘s “net-zero energy” home of the future – which is planned for 2015, but exists only on paper right now – relies on a rooftop solar array to give the home enough energy to spin back the electricity meter (see GE Unveils Net Zero Energy Home Strategy).

But that blueprint also includes a battery. Without it, solar may be too unstable an energy source to incorporate into utility grids in a big way.

Silent Power has a solar inverter-battery rig it says can accomplish that balancing task. In fact, the Baxter, Minn.-based startup is involved with GE in at least a few smart grid projects seeking stimulus funding to install those systems across a large number of homes, CEO Todd Headlee said last week at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin, Texas.

Silent Power has raised $4 million in angel financing, and is seeking to raise a $7 million series A round to “attack the utility space,” with commercialization planned for 2011, Headlee said.

As for GE, “We’ve partnered with them on a couple of proposals,” he said, though he wouldn’t give additional details on the projects the two were planning (see Green Light post).

The problem with utility-scale energy storage has so far been its price. Beyond huge, capital-intensive and site-limited systems like pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage, batteries, flywheels, fuel cells and other distributed energy storage technologies are still too expensive for most utilities to justify (see Grid Energy Storage: Big Market, Tough to Tackle).

Silent Energy says it can drastically undercut those costs by maxing out the federal tax rebate available for solar system installations – and getting utilities to foot part of the remaining bill.

A Silent Power system should add about $5,000 to the cost of a typical solar installation, Headlee said. The 30-percent federal tax credit shaves that by 30 percent, leaving about $3,500 remaining – or, as Silent Power likes to frame it, about $350 per kilowatt-hour in storage capacity. That’s cheaper than commercially available battery storage system today, though it’s a target price for many.

Batteries count for the solar credit when linked to an inverter system, Headlee said. If Congress passes a bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D.-Ore.) that offers an energy storage equivalent tax incentives to wind and solar, that could open up the pool of financial support, he said (see Energy Bill Could Boost Storage Technologies).

Granted, the batteries won’t last more than a few hours, he said. But that’s enough for utilities to smooth the difference between the time that solar panels get their best output, in the mid-afternoon, and the slightly later peak demand times that are typical for utilities during hot summer afternoons as people get home from work and start turning stuff on, he said.

That demand response capacity could be worth something to utilities – perhaps, even a $3,500 rebate or incentive to homeowners to make Silent Power’s system as cheap as a regular solar panel array, he suggested.

A solar-battery system would require inverter systems that can switch instantly between the two – something Silent Power’s system can do, Headlee said. About 200 homes with Silent Power’s units should give a utility 1 megawatt of load-shifting capacity, he estimated.

Beyond that, batteries can help smooth the big swings in solar panel generation when clouds pass overhead, he said. Spread out to neighborhood scale, such drastic ups and downs in home power demand could spell trouble for an unprepared distribution grid.

The market is huge, Headlee said. American Electric Power, for one, says it will need 1 gigawatt of storage, or 2.6 percent of generation capacity, by 2020, he noted, and California may require 4 gigawatts of storage to reach its goal of getting a third of its power from renewable resources by 2020. About 20 gigawatts of new storage would represent a $10 billion market, he said (see Green Light post).

Beyond its work with GE, Silent Power has been talking with California utilities including San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, he said.

Most of California’s utilities are asking the DOE for money to build grid storage, but those projects have concentrated on larger-scale storage, like a 30-megawatt lithium-ion battery Southern California Edison wants A123 Systems to build, or Pacific Gas & Electric‘s plan for a compressed air energy storage system (see PG&E Wants DOE Dollars for Underground Air Energy Storage and SoCal Edison Wants A123′s Biggest Grid Battery Ever).

But SDG&E’s proposed $212 million microgrid project, which is also seeking DOE stimulus funding, is likely to require smaller distributed energy storage systems, Headlee noted (see Balance Energy Wants to Build Microgrids, Starting With San Diego).

For now, the company plans to use lead-acid batteries with an estimated five to seven year lifespan, he said. But it’s looking into lithium-ion and advanced lead-acid batteries as well, he said.

A few venture capitalists briefed on Silent Power’s plans at last week’s conference in Austin noted that the company might be a bit early to the market. Systems for allowing utilities to control large numbers of home-based batteries are in their infancy, though the millions of smart meters being deployed could help extend those networks, Headlee said.

In fact, smart grid startup GridPoint started out in 2003 with a similar business plan, then switched to software after finding the market too small, he said (see GridPoint Gets $120M, Buys V2Green).

But then, utilities have been running demand response programs for years, with factories and other large power users turning down their use at peak demand times, Headlee said (see Is Demand Response Doomed?)

And utilities expecting hundreds of megawatts of rooftop solar panels to be installed in their service territories may feel under the gun to put storage in place to make it an asset, rather than a grid-destabilizing liability, he said.

Link to original article below

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/rooftop-solar-batteries-included/

Lithium-ion technology is no longer limited to cell phone, laptop and power tool applications.  There is a whole new industry of lithium-ion battery manufacturers emerging, targeted at addressing the emergence of the plugin-hybrid vehicle and utility scale energy storage markets.  Silent Power got up close and personal with some of the newest lithium-ion battery technology this week.  In the above picture Todd Headlee is accepting Silent Power’s first shipment of a lithium-ion batteries from the Energy Harvest Group.  Also in the picture is Bob Long of Bob Long and Associates who is helping deliver the goods.  The Energy Harvest Group is a leading manufacturer, distributer, and integrator of lithium-ion based storage technology for iCel Systems.  Some of our utility customers will demand this new lithium-ion technology instead of the standard lead acid technology for the trial deployments that we have planned for 2010.  Silent Power is excited to see the added performance gains that our products will receive from this new technology.

Silent Power Selected to Compete at the 2009 Clean Energy Venture Summit

AUSTIN – October 9, 2009 – Silent Power Inc., a Smart Grid solutions provider focused on renewable energy integration, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­is pleased to announce they have been selected to compete at the Clean Energy Venture Summit (CEVS) on Oct. 14 and 15 at the AT&T Conference Center.  Silent Power will be showcasing its OnDemand™ Energy Appliance on Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. CST.

As renewable energy becomes a significant part of our nation’s base load generation, utilities are planning to add a significant amount of energy storage on the grid.  To answer this need Silent Power has created the OnDemand™ Energy Appliance, a solar and wind inverter technology that delivers utility scale storage by aggregating hundreds of kW sized storage devices attached to solar homes and businesses.  By targeting homes or businesses that install solar photovoltaic, utilities can use Silent Power’s OnDemand™ product to add energy storage to these installations for $350/kWh by taking advantage of federal rebates available to “behind the meter” solar PV installations, a 65% savings to the utility.  The benefits to the utilities are many, most notably shifting the solar peak to match the utilities peak demand as well as adding megawatts of expanded capacity that is available for demand response.  The home and business owners will also enjoy the benefit of having backup power available for the times when the grid is not available.

About Silent Power

Silent Power Inc. (SPI) manufactures and markets easy-to-install, highly reliable, smart grid solutions for renewable energy integration and backup power markets.  At SPI we are working to provide proven innovative technologies, focusing on reliability and customer satisfaction, that ultimately lead to better environmental outcomes.  SPI is a U.S. based company located in the beautiful “Lakes Area” of central Minnesota.  For more information, visit: http://www.silentpwr.com.

About the Clean Energy Venture Summit

The third annual Clean Energy Venture Summit (CEVS), “Bringing the Smart Grid to Life,” will bring together emerging clean energy technology companies, leading investors and a seven-member utility power panel on October 14 and 15.  CEVS supports the Pecan Street Project, the most aggressive smart grid project in the nation.  Distributed generation, renewable energy, demand management, transportation, storage and energy efficiency companies will compete for investor funding, attention from regional utilities and the title of “most promising early stage smart grid company.”  Battery Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, DFJ Mercury, Applied Ventures, 21 Ventures, TXU Energy, Austin Energy, CenterPoint Energy, CPS Energy, Bluebonnet Electric and NREL are just some of this year’s participants.  CEVS is the place to be for anyone serious about the smart grid.  Learn more and register at http://www.budurl.com/CEVS2009

About Mercom Capital Group

Mercom Capital Group, LLC is a public relations, public affairs and market intelligence firm specializing in clean energy.   At Mercom, we help clean energy companies build powerful relationships with media, analysts, government decision-makers and local communities.  We arm our clients with timely market intelligence to ensure their competitive position and overall success.  Mercom Capital Group is located in Austin Texas with offices in Bangalore India.  For more information about Mercom Capital Group, visit: http://www.mercomcapital.com.  To get a copy of Mercom’s popular market intelligence reports covering solar and smart grid, visit:  http://mercomcapital.com/market_intelligence.php