Without a grid upgrade, US electrification can’t go forward. This company is helping to fix it

Published

3 years ago

October 4, 2022

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LineVision, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, provides “electric utilities with the real-time monitoring and analytics needed to accelerate the net zero grid.” Here’s why this company might play a crucial role in helping to upgrade the US grid and global grids to ensure that the electrification revolution is a success.

To explain exactly what LineVision does in layman’s terms, it’s easiest to describe it in road traffic terms, as its CEO, Hudson Gilmer, put to me in a video chat. If the electrical grid is like a network of roads, then LineVision adds an extra lane on each road that alleviates traffic as more “cars” are put on the road, such as solar, wind, electric vehicles, and so on.

Or in actual terms, LineVision’s Grid Enhancing Technology (GETs) uses patented noncontact overhead line monitoring technology that utilizes LiDAR sensors and advanced analytics to improve the grid’s capacity, resilience, and safety. The company’s sensors collect critical information to unlock additional capacity on existing lines, provide insight into conductor health, and detect anomalies and risks.

Gilmer says that one GETs component takes around 20 minutes to install, and one needs to be installed between every two to three miles on the power lines.

The components of LineVision’s technology are made in Maine and Texas, and customers use a secure web interface to access grid analytics. As Gilmer says, “The magic happens in the algorithm.”

Gilmer pointed out that “transmission lines are currently not monitored today. Therefore utilities have to make conservative assumptions about weather. Our sensors can unlock up to 40% capacity, helping utilities to achieve more accurate capacity.”

LineVision’s technology is also capable of “situational awareness” – that’s the ability to sense risks such as wildfires, which can be caused by poorly maintained conductors. The company has also developed an application that detects ice on the line, which it picks up when it senses line movement due to the ice’s weight.

And the US grid needs all the capacity it can get: Gilmer noted that in order to accommodate the electrification that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is going to spur on, grid capacity in the US will need to double by 2035 and triple by 2050.

LineVision’s technology is already being used in real time by utilities such as National Grid, Dominion Energy, Xcel Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority, Duquesne Light Company (pictured above), NYPA, SMUD, multiple Exelon companies, and several other North American utilities. It also works with utilities across eight European countries, Marubeni, and other EPCOs in Japan, and Oceania.

And seeing how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed order 881 in December, which requires all transmission providers to improve “both the accuracy and transparency of transmission line ratings,” the regulatory tailwinds for grid improvement are now strong.

LineVision today announced the closing of its $33 million Series C financing round, which moves it from the early stage to the growth stage, and the company will use the money to accelerate global growth.

The round is led by Climate Innovation Capital and co-led by S2G Ventures, and other new investors include the $1 billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and Marubeni.

The IRA is expected to reduce emissions to 42% below 2005 levels by 2030. Gilmer rightly observes, “The IRA has significant incentives, but it does nothing to solve the grid capacity’s increased demand. Transmission is the critical link.”

Photo: LineVision

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Environment

I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

Published

5 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.

Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!

I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!

Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.

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To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.

Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!

Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.

The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.

The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!

I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.

That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.

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Environment

OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

Published

6 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.

This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.

In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”

The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.

One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.

Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.

They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.

Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.

Environment

Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Published

21 hours ago

July 4, 2025

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Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

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After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: